FALL RIVER — A fundraising effort is underway to support K-9 officers who are trained to sniff out bombs, guns and drugs, and whose human handlers are responsible for paying for their veterinary bills and supplies.

“It gets expensive,” said Fall River Police Detective Jeff Autote, whose 3-year old Black Lab, Roxy, is keen at sniffing out explosives. “These are working dogs, so they’re more prone to get injured.”

And when a K-9 does get injured, or when one is due for a regular checkup, Autote and his fellow K-9 handlers cover the costs.

Those expenses aren’t funded in the police department’s budget, and insurance companies won’t write policies to cover police dogs because of their high-risk job, said Detective Gary Barboza.

“We never had funding for the dogs,” Barboza said.

The nonprofit Fall River Police Working Dog Foundation was launched about a year ago to promote awareness and raise funds to help K-9 handlers pay for health care costs and other expenses associated with their four-legged partners.

A comedy fundraiser, for guests 18 and older, will take place Saturday, April 27, 7 p.m., at White’s of Westport, and proceeds from ticket sales, raffles and auctions will benefit the registered nonprofit.

Like their human handlers, hazards of a K-9's job include injury and accidental overdose, but more commonly a pulled muscle, Barboza said.

Each K-9 handler carries Naloxone in the event a dog is exposed to a potent opioid, an antidote that costs several hundred dollars a dose and is administered with a needle rather than a nasal spray.

Thankfully, none of the department’s K-9s have required Naloxone yet, but several years ago retired K-9 Cody responded to a scene where crack cocaine had been thrown on the floor, said Barboza.

Trained to sniff out narcotics, Cody inhaled the substance and overdosed. He received medical treatment and survived, Barboza said, but the incident demonstrates how a peril of the job means more out-of-pocket costs for handlers.

“It’s unpredictable, how much it could be,” Barboza said.

Brenda Beaudry, a clerk for the city’s Department of Inspectional Services, had no idea police officials were handling their K-9 partners’ care.

“I was really shocked that they had to pay for their own vet bills. It really bothered me,” she said.

Beaudry has a personal connection to working dogs. A good friend worked for the New York Port Authority during 9/11. Her friend responded with his K-9 partner, who died when the buildings collapsed.

“It’s always been in my heart to make sure that the K-9s are taken care of,” she said.

So this year, Beaudry spearheaded a dress-down day for employees of the city. Employees who donated $5 or more to the Fall River Police Working Dog Foundation got to go to work wearing Red Sox gear Friday rather than their typical, decidedly more formal attire.

The dress-down day raised $490 for the case, according to Beaudry.

“That’s amazing,” she said.

Cemetery groundskeeper Bob Kelly was one of several employees from his department who welcomed K-9 handlers and their dogs onto the Oak Grove Cemetery grounds Friday afternoon.

The group posed for a photograph with police K9s Oro, Roxy, Lucky and Capone. As a light rain began to fall, Kelly said the city’s first-ever dress-down day in support of police K-9s won’t be its last.

“It’s a day to give back to the police department. Hopefully it will continue next year. I think it will. I’ll make sure of it,” he said.