A 9-year-old Monmouth County boy has donated the money he received for his birthday to help protect crime-fighting dogs.

Will Aninowsky, of Little Silver, says that he wanted to do something special with his birthday money. So he started a GoFundMe account to raise money to purchase a bulletproof vest for a police dog.

Will and his Cub Scout pack were able to meet Monmouth County Sheriff K-9 Fuze Wednesday to see his new vest.

“It protects him a lot, because some people out there are really bad. It’s dangerous for the dogs to go out there,” Will says. “Once he has the bulletproof vest it’s [safer] for the dog to go out and fight crime.”

K-9 vests have to be specifically crafted for each individual dog and cost $1,000.

The Monmouth County K-9 unit is made up of eight dogs. It responded to more than 800 calls last year.