Anderson Cooper stepped up to the plate this week and hit a home run. When Cooper found out that a canine ballistic vest would have saved the life of a fallen K9 named Krijger with the Norfolk Virginia police department, he purchased enough vests to outfit all of the Norfolk police department's K9 unit.
The 4-year-old Belgian Malinois Krijger was shot and killed during a shootout involving the Norfolk police department during a domestic violence call, according to Barkpost. Krijger would be alive if he was wearing a $2,200 ballistic vest, something just not in the budget for the police department. Since Krijger's death, fundraisers had begun to purchase one vest at a time, but thanks to Cooper, the dogs at the Norfolk police department will be covered.
In 2015, Cooper had interviewed retired SEAL Jimmy Hatch, who runs a Virginia based charity, Spike's K9 Fund. It was through Spike's K9 Fund that Cooper made the donation after hearing of the plight through Hatch, since the pair remained in contact after the interview.
Hatch posted the CNN anchor's donation on Spike K9's website.
"We are humbled to announce that Anderson Cooper has donated his speaking fee for his upcoming 'Norfolk Forum' speech (26 January) to Spike's K9 Fund for the K9 Krijger Ballistic Vest Campaign. His donation was quite generous. All of the Norfolk K9's will be outfitted and we will start outfitting K9's from other cities in Hampton Roads with the remainder," he wrote.
The Norfolk Police Department showed their appreciation in a post on their Facebook page. "Dogs love us unconditionally and, every day, many of them selflessly risk their lives to protect us. Anderson Cooper did a beautiful thing by donating this money and making sure that they are protected when they put their lives on the line," they wrote.
Indeed he did. We already knew that Cooper was an animal lover, having posted a loving tribute to his dog Molly, who passed in 2015. But today, Anderson Cooper became a hero for the Norfolk PD K9 unit.
