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."
This cannot be correct. There is no way (unless things have gone toitally worng) that we would let police dogs starve to death.
I'm all for getting them fed. I just can't believe the US military would starve it's own dogs. We've got vets in the military whose sole job is caring for these animals! These must be dogs used by Iraqi forces.
Sounds like somebody really dropped the ball when they were making the supply list..
What about feeding starving dogs people food...like table scraps, half-eaten MREs, or whatever else gets tossed away?
My dad used to feed my dog soft-boiled eggs, bacon, and even coffee on an almost daily basis...that dog lived over 17 years.
BTTT.
We had a dog for over 15 years fed on table scraps when I was a child.
Exactly (see post #24). I don't think that dog knew what dog food was!
Grandma used to feed her Yellowheaded Amazon (parrot) the same thing. It was ancient back then, and probably still kicking.
Looks like these are Iraqi dogs being used by the IP. The thing that is needed is adaquate training of the Iraqis. Those dogs are valuable and life saving assets and must be properly maintained.
When I lived in Saigon in 1997, my landlord had a *very* well trained German Shepard guard dog for the house. I never bother to ask where he got it, or who trained it.
Some died, some sick?
Have these been deaths by starvation?
The article says they are eating people food to supplement whatever dog food they have...
This soldier needs to clarify herself and/or we need additional information to understand what is happening here.
If she has pointed out such gross negligence than someone needs to get an ass kicking.
I am sceptical about this story,too...Just doesn't sound quite right...
Good catch. I think you're right about that. It costs the US gov't I-can't-remember-how-many tens of thousands of dollars to train each of these dogs. There's no way in the world the Pentagon wouldn't spend a few bucks a month to provide each of them with its monthly ration of kibble.
ping
"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-JournalThe Vegas Review-Journal is getting one pulled over on them.
Anyone check to see if there is a "Capt. Gabriella Cook, commander of the Las Vegas-based 313th Military Police Detachment" yet??
Either this dogs are too picky to be really useful, or someone is blowing smoke up our skirt.
Dying from starvation? Right. I have yet to meet a dog that won't eat what I eat. Zuit, most of the time, just watching him try, I'd say he would rather!
Something smells here, and it ain't our military dogs. The commander that supposedly reported this would simply place a call and the problem would be corrected in days. Who's kidding who? The very nature of this unit would dictate that medicines, foods, dietary aids for dogs, would be a part of the standard issue to this unit since it uses military police dogs. The dog trainers would have screamed to high heavens the day if was found that an adequate on hand supply of dog food was not on hand. Tis that simple.
Whoever wrote this e-mail would be far better off contacting the head of the US training mission and reporting the problem. They just have to emphasise how important those dogs are to the IP's safety and teach them how to care for them.
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