For Veteran's Day: Please Support the Canine Members of the Armed Forces Act

Third time's the charm, right? I do think it's an appropriate Veteran's Day post, though, to ask my readers again (I wrote about it previously in March and in May) to support and spread the word on the Canine Members of the Armed Forces act.

(having not been to Guam myself, image of the war dog memorial is linked from the DobermansDen article on Doberman military service)

You can go to the Animal Welfare Institute web site, enter your zip code, and either compose your own email or select talking points from an email they've already drafted to send to your senators in request for support.

The body of the email, if you select all of their points, is as follows:

Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

Thank you for cosponsoring S. 2134, the Canine Members of the Armed ForcesAct, sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).Military Working Dogs (MWDs) have played important roles in many conflictsand in other capacities.  But this past year has brought heightenedattention to the bravery of MWDs, the sacrifices they have made, the manylives they have saved, and even the suffering they have experienced frompost-traumatic stress disorder.  Some MWDs have served multiple tours ofduty.However, while regarded as "more than equipment" and "true heroes," theyare not treated as such upon retirement.MWDs are eligible for adoption but if they are overseas and no placementcan be arranged there, prospective adopters in the U.S. must bear the costof transporting the dogs back to the U.S., and may also face tremendousveterinary costs to treat problems associated with their dogs' militaryservice.This is no way to treat true heroes!Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)has introduced S. 2134, the Canine Membersof the Armed Forces Act to recognize in a concrete way the service andsacrifice of these valuable and valued members of the military.  This billprovides for reclassifying MWDs as "canine members of the armed forces";allows the appropriate military branch to transport the dogs back to theU.S., and allows the Secretary of Defense to contract with a privatenonprofit entity, at no cost to the federal government, to set up a systemto provide veterinary care to adopted MWDs.Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)has introduced S. 2134, the Canine Membersof the Armed Forces Act to recognize in a concrete way the service andsacrifice of these valuable and valued members of the military.  This billprovides for reclassifying MWDs as "canine members of the armed forces";allows the appropriate military branch to transport the dogs back to theU.S., and allows the Secretary of Defense to contract with a privatenonprofit entity, at no cost to the federal government, to set up a systemto provide veterinary care to adopted MWDs.Again, thank you for cosponsoring S. 2134, which will pay fitting tributeto these heroes by recognizing them as true members of the military and byfacilitating their adoption and access to appropriate veterinary care uponretirement.Sincerely

S. 2134 The Canine Members of the Armed Forces act was introduced on February 28, 2012 and hasn't moved since then. Arguably, there are many things that people are more concerned with than what happens to a couple of dogs once they can't do their jobs anymore, but where's the compassion? Soldiers don't have to foot their own bill home (at least, I don't THINK they do), so why should the dogs? The military put a lot of money into the training and upkeep of both parties, and those dogs do save lives. I'm not sure why it's even necessary to debate this.

Additionally, you can visit http://www.jbmf.us/ and learn about the Military Working Dog Teams National Monument that they're currently fundraising to build. You can also visit the Natural Balance website (they're one of the sponsors) and either donate directly to the fund, or buy the limited edition jerky treats that they are selling through PetCo for a fundraising purpose.