‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ Stars Dog and Beth Chapman to Leave Business

Beth and Duane “Dog” Chapman are leaving their lives of bounty hunting behind.

The couple told TooFab they are stepping away from the business amid Beth’s battle with throat cancer, which will be chronicled on A&E’s two-hour special Dog and Beth: Fight of Their Lives on Nov. 27.

The show will highlight Beth’s 13-hour surgery to have a Stage II tumor removed in September, as well as the family’s struggles in dealing with her diagnosis.

Though it was a private matter for the Chapmans, they chose to share their journey to honor devoted fans of Dog the Bounty Hunter.

“I think the real reason why we shared it is because our fans have lived through a lot of stuff with us. Dating way back to 2003 when my husband caught Andrew Luster, to 2005 when they tried to extradite him back to Mexico, the death of my father, the death of my daughter, our wedding, baby Lyssa’s wedding, they’ve been our fans through thick and thin and this wasn’t something you could hide, this wasn’t like a family breakup or family riff, this was something far more serious that could have had fatal ramifications,” she explained.

“You can’t hide it. I felt like our fans have been so loyal to us that we really owed it to share it with them, so that if I could be a blessing to even one person, help one person get early detection, then we really owed it to them to show the struggle and show that you can make it, you can get through it, you just need to have a positive attitude,” Beth continued.

Dog the Bounty Hunter aired for eight seasons from 2003-2012 on A&E.

With the danger that follows the bounty hunting business, Beth said it was time for her to step back from the profession. With that, Dog also decided to leave the business so his wife wouldn’t worry about his safety when he wasn’t home. Instead, they’ll spend more time together and Dog will look for another job.

“I don’t know that he’s looked for a job in the past 40 years, but we gotta change because we need longevity,” Beth said with a laugh. “We have small children, we have people counting on us. It doesn’t mean that our stance on the criminal justice system has changed, it means that we may want to change.”

Dog explained that he’d still like to work in law enforcement in some way.

“I would hope that whatever I did people could profit and get happy about it. I like to see, laugh and cry when it’s in a good way. I don’t know,” he said. “For 40 years, I’ve done bounty hunting. I think it’d have to be something in law enforcement. It’s just amazing, we’re taking it day to day, it’s amazing she’s alive. We’re so glad that people prayed to God, there’s a God. I made some deals with him this time. I made some good deals. I just thank God he’s still with us.”

For now, Beth is just happy to be living her life day by day, she said.

“I’m lucky to be sharing Thanksgiving with my family, and I’m lucky to be here for these holidays,” she added. “You take it day by day and you don’t try to take on more than you can handle. I’ve tried to cut stress seriously out of my diet. It really does bad things to you. My voice is not strong all the time, it comes and goes sometimes and sometimes it just stops.”