Unlike the stateside police force where K-9 dogs are officers, in the military dogs are considered equipment. US government issued, one each. The legislation being proposed would give military dogs equivalency to K-9 dogs - as members of the Armed Forces.
The goal is to help the adoptive families with some of the medical costs of sustaining an adopted aged-out or battle-injured dogsoldier (the CNN article below says they get 30 days of meds and that’s about it). And also to provide that dogsoldiers be returned to the USA for retirement discharge so adopting families don’t have to foot the cost of shipping the dog from whereever it is to the US (there are rescues that help with these costs).
Here’s an older CNN article with some background information.
“Kandoll, who helps civilians adopt military working dogs, estimates that the average war dog saves 150 soldier lives during its service.”
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/06/when-a-dog-isnt-a-dog/
We’d sling them onto cargo flights to get them home. Same with the cats - we are all fond of cats. But the thought of leaving them behind never crossed our minds, ever. Only living thing we ever left behind was an elephant - get me tipsy some day and I’ll tell you that tale.
Dogs are not equipment. However, if the military wishes to consider them so, you are required to turn in your weapons to a qualified authority when you de-mob.