Holly McManus

Holly McManus has been in law enforcement for over 17 years. She started the K9 Program for the City of St. Francis (WI) Police Department with K9 Bane in 2014. K9 Bane, named after the bad-guy in Batman, was trained as a Dual-Purpose narcotic/apprehension patrol dog. She was promoted to Detective in 2019 and was able to still bring K9 Bane with her to work as a task force member with the FBI Milwaukee SWAT team. Holly and K9 Bane served the City and surrounding communities for almost 7 years together, before he retired in November 2020.

In June 2022, K9 Bane was diagnosed with Degenerative Myelopathy (DM), known as canine ALS. With this diagnosis, Holly set out on a very public journey to raise awareness and money to support K9 Bane’s medical needs. Not only did she pay for all his care with donations, but she also commissioned and dedicated a life-size bronze K9 Bane statue to the community to honor the life and sacrifice of working K9s. With the

remaining donated funds, she founded the K9 Bane Hero Foundation to ensure that Bane’s memory would ensure that other K9s would be honored. The non-profit was recognized as an official 501(c)3 in February 2024.

After a 709-day battle against DM, and ultimately a hemangiosarcoma (cancer), K9 Bane took his final journey and traded his wheels for wings on 05.09.24. Holly understands the rewarding, yet emotional and difficult, journey a K9 handler walks with their canine partner. In founding the K9 Bane Hero Foundation, Holly wanted to make sure that K9s, their partner, and families have both financial and emotional support to manage healthcare and comfort in retirement.

"EVERY HERO DESERVES A LEGACY."