Rebecca's War Dog of the Week: Time to lift the 'don’t pet, don't feed' ban

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, October 15, 2010 - 6:43 AM Share

By Rebecca Frankel
Best Defense chief canine correspondent

When it comes to soldiers taking in stray dogs in war zones, the official ban are clear, but the reality is that those in charge tend to turn a blind eye to these dogs because they have a way of boosting morale in dark places.

It is time to change the regulation and recognize reality. Those who support keeping the "don't pet, don't feed" ban in place need only talk to a group of U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan who were mighty fortunate for the company of three stray dogs that the soldiers on base had more or less adopted -- Rufus, Sasha, and Target. One night last February a Taliban suicide bomber tried to infiltrate the army barracks where 50 soldiers were sleeping. But the bomber was taken completely by surprise when the three dogs attacked him, holding him back by biting his legs, finally forcing him to detonate the 24lbs of C4 explosives he had strapped to his body. The attacker never made it to the threshold.

However, the blast did damage enough. As one soldier recounts the explosion was big enough that the shrapnel alone caved in a wall. Five soldiers were injured and two of the dogs were seriously wounded. Sasha, the third dog, sustained wounds that were too severe and she had to be put down. The soldiers nursed Rufus and Target back to health.

A month later that unit was sent home, but Target and Rufus remained behind.

One soldier -- Sgt. Chris Duke -- who had grown particularly attached to Rufus, was worried about the dogs' welfare. He feared that the next unit might not want them around and that the dogs wouldn't be looked after, or worse, killed.

So Duke wrote a letter to Hope for the Warriors, a veteran's assistance group, asking that they help bring the two dogs "home." Within three months a Facebook campaign had collected upwards of $20,000.

Over the summer Target and Rufus made the trip from Afghanistan to Georgia -- Rufus was reunited with Sgt. Duke and Target with the army medic who nursed the dogs after the bombing.

"There isn't a doubt in my mind [that the dogs] saved my life," said Duke.

Rufus and Sgt. Duke U.S. Military

EXPLORE:REBECCA'S WAR DOG OF THE WEEK, MILITARY
 

VOLUNTEER

1:14 PM ET

October 15, 2010

Drop the Ban

Everywhere I ever I went in Afghanistan there were a couple of dogs and a sheepish LTC telling me "Sir, I'm just about to get rid of those dogs." We both knew he had no such plans. How many suicides have been prevented by the affection and distraction provided by one of these dogs? The value of the dogs overcomes any potential health risk.

 

WALKING WOUNDED

5:32 PM ET

October 16, 2010

Volunteer, now you're talking 'creative leadership'

DADT for dogs?

Todays top uniformed Army psychiatrist working on PTSD/suicide issues regards canine therapy near the top of her service's quiver. But it's not even in the doc's bag.

Moving man's best friend up forward, 'before the boom', is so obvious that it's no surprise there are rules against it.

How many of us have read of General Petraeus' exhorting officers 'don't let the Army stop you from doing your job!'

Imagine the good that companionship of a friendly dog would to to a traumatized war child, if only her family wasn't starving and cold?

 

AMY-BANGKOK

2:07 PM ET

October 15, 2010

Rabies

I work for an animal welfare organization (no, not PETA) and I know how much dogs and cats can affect a person. I can only imagine how important these animals are to the soldiers that care for them.

My only concern is for the possibility of a bite - even just a playful nip or scratch - from a rabid dog. You can't tell a canine carrier of the disease just by looking at them. And rabies is the one disease with a 100% mortality rate; this is the one disease you can NEVER be too careful about. My hope (but not assumption) would be that the policy is not out of meanness but meant to protect US soldiers.

In the dog population here where rabies is present but not prevalent, at our facility our policy is EVERYONE who has any sort of skin break from the mouth of a dog of unknown status, even those people who have had pre-exposure rabies vaccine, must go for post-exposure rabies shots. And unknown status means any animal that hasn't had a documented rabies shot at least 4-6 months prior yet not more than 3 years prior.

Do our soldiers get pre-exposure rabies vacc by matter of routine or is post-exposure vacc available to them? Do the army veterinarians ever vaccinate local animals?

I wonder if I could somehow donate some trays of vaccine... its a super easy shot to give, right under the skin, anyone can do it. Thoughts??

 

WALKING WOUNDED

5:39 PM ET

October 16, 2010

vaccination of local animals sounds like pop-centric COIN

Great idea, Amy-Bangkok

What's the admin barriers to troops vaccinating animals?

Prevention is way better than a patrol or civilian team being pulled into danger, dealing with an acute case of rabies or tetanus in a local person.

 

ERIC_STRATTONIII

7:08 AM ET

October 18, 2010

Vaccines are given

The Troops get vaccines but Vets are rare in the military, not a lot of them to go around and not a priority to get animals taken care of, couple that with the senior officers for the most part do not care that much about MWR that they would risk a bad fitrep for the sake of the boys. Saw a COL go to AFRICOM and want to kill all the cats that were in effect killing all the snakes and other pests and giving some MWR lift to the guys. In OIF saw the same thing, one General even orders camp dogs to be shot, that was in 04' and 10', it is easier to do what is direct via General Order Number 1 than it is to go to bat for the boys.

 

FIGHTBACK

9:03 PM ET

October 18, 2010

What about the Fish at Al-Faw Palace?

Well, even if dogs are banned, or just ignored under canine DADT, at least the Fish at Al-Faw Palace [Camp Victory, Victory Base Complex (VBC), Baghdad, Iraq] are still hungry; all ranks (especially the O-6s c. 2300 hours) feed them - way too much, but they burn it off.

The Fish even have their own blog:

http://thefishatalfawpalace.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

 

OCL

9:59 AM ET

October 19, 2010

Ah...the fish

NSTIW...one day a bunch of the IT bubbas decided that the fish were not getting enough food from the chow hall (sorry, DFAC) so they ordered a sheet cake from the Liberty PX and tossed it in one afternoon.

It was pretty spectacular.

The fish were a bit creepy, though...I remember that they'd follow - in a giant school - all the way from the the palace to the guard shack (and vice versa) if you were walking close enough to the edge. Very bizarre as they were some pretty big fish.

Ah...good times.

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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