www.esryle.comLOCAL NEWS ACROSS THE NATION
Posted on 01/05/2005 12:58:40 PM PST by esryle
LAS VEGAS -- The commander of an Army Reserve detachment is begging friends back home to send food for Iraqi police dogs.
"The dogs are starving and urgently need dry dog food," Capt. Gabriella Cook, commander of the Las Vegas-based 313th Military Police Detachment, said in a Dec. 28 e-mail reported Wednesday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"Some of them have already died," Cook wrote. "Half of them are sick. We have no way of buying actual dog food here."
Cook's unit arrived last month in the Iraq capital. She said 12 German shepherds and one black Labrador retriever trained for bomb-detection and attack at the Iraqi Police Academy in Baghdad have been eating table scraps and garbage.
"It seems like an emergency situation," Diana Paivanas, a Henderson pet-care provider and Cook's friend, told the Review-Journal. "Something needs to be done now to save these dogs."
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., a veterinarian, directed a legislative aide to contact an Army liaison to investigate, a spokesman for the senator said.
Military officials at the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad did not immediately respond to the newspaper's request for information about the food supply for U.S. canines in Iraq.
Paivanas said she found it costs about $50 to mail a 30-pound bag of dog food to Cook.
Henderson Veterinarian Terry Muratore estimated that each of the 13 working dogs would consume a 40 pounds or more of dry food per month.
"If securing the country entails having security dogs that are healthy, then we should do that," Muratore said. "Surely there's space on a C-130 to get a pallet of dog food over there."
Who has the doggie ping list?
This is unbelieveable!
I saw a show on Discovery/History/?? about the dogs US troops had to leave behind in Vietnam. sad
If there is problem getting dog food get with the vet officer of your higher authority.
Trained dogs are worth more than a trained MP, I know.
This officer is crying woe are my dogs cause she obviously couldn't hit the floor with her hat.
How the hell did this happen? Why don`t they take the food from the mutts at guantanamo and put that food to real use?
If they had been brought back to the US estimates ran that more the 90% of the K-9 population could have been infected and would have to be destroyed.
bump
We need to find away to do something about this.
Before we get too excited here...there's no way the US would not provide for it's own dogs. These must be Iraqi forces.
I will wait to see if this is valid or not. It's my belief that a solder who is the dog handler will give up his rations for that animal.... This maybe true but I'll withhold judgement.
"In life, the firmest friend,
The first to welcome,
foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his master's own,
Who labors, fights, lives,
breathes for him alone."
Lord Byron
I find it hard to believe the military sends them over there but doesn't plan to feed them?!? Surely that isn't true. Why isn't the military taking care of the dog food problem?
Something is not right about this story, these dogs would be too valuable. There is too much money going over there for this to be true.
Any way to stick some dog food in the care packages?
Even if they are Iraqi dogs, I know our troops would see that they are fed, if they have to steal our own dog food
People food.
Actually that's two words. Okay, two words.
Tasty people food.
Damn, that's three words.
Okay, okay, I've got it this time. Three words:
Lots of tasty people food.
Damn.
I remember that too. I will VERY pissed if we do that crap again.
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