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."
Doggie dinner can consist of almost anything - decendants of wolves, they can digest almost anything - even bone. Aside from bloat (a real emergency), most digestive problems within canine are short-term and mild. I am having a hard time believing that there aren't enough leftovers, scraps, and even carrion to cook up for these doggies.
Beyond that, it would be a simple call that our military could make to Pedigree, Eukanuba/Iams, Purina, et al and those folks would have rejected cans and split bags out to Iraq on the next plane. In fact, the only thing they would do faster is put out the press release about their good deeds! And if only one dog food company did it, the others would be shamed into doing it too!
The US military has great procurement tactics. Something tells me this problem has or will be solved pronto....assuming it is a real problem.
Maybe if the good CPT would do some research in supply requesitioning proceedure instead of writing to the MSM and complaining then she might know how to get them some food.
"...as dogs belonging to the fledgling Iraqi police forces."
First of all, I strongly dislike being lumped into a "Group Smack Down" so don't add me to your next reply. Thanks.
Secondly, Yes. I GOT that first read-through. It's the Iraqi dogs that are hungry & dying on the job. If the Iraqi dogs don't have food, I STILL find it hard to believe that the coalition troops don't step up with whatever is available at hand. I've been in the field, and in similar situations, and trust me...even with hungry soldiers around, you could still feed the dogs from scraps out of the trash bins near the Mess Hall, or rejected MREs.
Thirdly, yes. This Captain is correct in asking for donations if possible, and if her plea gets a pallet of food flown over from her Humane Society back home, good on her. I believe most of us were brainstorming ideas to solve the problem at hand with what was available.
Our boxer likes beer - he goes nuts to lick it up if we spill some or leave a empty bottle on the floor. :-)
My God, this is nuts.
I know what you mean, My dog eats EVERYTHING but his own food and he's pushing 14 1/2 years and as health as you can expect for a dog his age. We usually give him a beef taco with beans every Saturday, he thinks it's great but his farts could stop a clock!
How about this reply.... can I add your name to that one if it is for you personally? :~D
Lighten up. It wasn't a group smackdown, but a badly needed clarification. I pinged many because many needed the clarification. Many were expressing outrage at this officer's ability to fill out military forms, or at the military for not providing for it's dogs, and that isn't the problem that needed solved.
THANK YOU! We are crazy about animals in America, I lived in Mexico for a year, in third world countrys animals are treated like sewer rats. They could care less if dogs eat or not. they are treated as pieces of equipment.
They have no love for animals or dogs, it is a different frame of mind altogether. It is cultural. You can not change it!
I have no doubt that the dogs are treated as worthless and not fed, I experienced it first hand.
In fact because I would befriend dogs and feed them I was thought of as some weirdo when I was in Mexico.
BINGO
Got it. I felt unjustly smacked, for some reason. Must be the weather, so please forgive me. :)
Never run under a tree in the jungle where parrots are roosting.
They get scared and lose all excess weight before they fly.
It will ruin your day.
Ping to post 68.
Thanks for the note. I should pay closer attention to what I read. I gotta take of my glasses to read something, then when I can't see the print, I have to put them back on.....hee hee, might as well laugh while I still can.
That figures. Poor animals. Guess our guys should have been a bit more carefull in handing over our police dogs to a bunch of dumb asses. It's pathetic at best.
What the mess halls toss out every day would feed 250 dogs. The article is bs
I'm pro corporal punishment so a good smack is justified every once in a while.
Thanks for the clarity.
Ah, yes. Baptism by flyer. I know it well.
I am speculating that these might be locally-trained "Iraqi" dogs, and as such are not a sanctioned K-9 unit. There were several instances of combat units "adopting" a local stray, and training him in rudimentary security work. The fact that this is an MP-detachment suggests to the contrary, however.
The title said deployed dogs..as though our dogs were given to the Iraqis...I still believe it is a matter for proper supply officer, alerting the top officers of the cultural problem and removing these dogs from the Iraqis care if they will not care for them.
Giving the Iraqis dog food will not solve their letting the dogs roam in garbage...or neglecting their care.
There are ways to handle this through the military procurement and military dog handlers' training..instead of getting the local Humane society involved..although the deployed soldiers are familiar with working with them..
We have this absolutely spoiled rotten, blind Springer that has our sons in laws out shooting deer, having the deer ground and then we have it in our freezers. Our freezers are full. Too bad I can't send some to Iraq. WE have plenty of deer around here, too.
....Las Vegas-based 313th Military Police Detachment
What is this? I agree, looks like the paper has been had. If true, then it's clobbering time for someone.
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