[esryle]

www.esryle.com
LOCAL NEWS ACROSS THE NATION

[Slings and Arrows]

Ping, but with skepticism. Also, someone already made the obligatory "feed-the-dogs-some-cats" joke.

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[Ditter]

My father used to say don't believe anything you read and only half of what you see. I don't believe this. If there is no dry dog food then these dogs would be eating the same food the handlers eat. These are valuable dogs that are loved and respected by their handlers, no way are they going to let them starve. Liberal dimocrat bilge.

[Jet Jaguar]

the AP picked it up.

A Soldier's E-Mail Request Sparks Food Drive for Starving Iraqi Police Dogs

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB0WIV5O3E.html

[higgmeister]

I went looking for this story because Empress Monica
just read it on the Channel 2 News in Atlanta. It looks
like this story has legs. I found 281 hits on Google for
the words "Iraqi Police Dogs". I'd love for someone to
get to the bottom of this story. I suspect Iraqi handlers
were intentionally letting, what they considered to be,
mongrel curs starve until Americans noticed it.

[higgmeister]

Here is an interesting link from Army Public affairs about the Iraqi Canine unit
Army News Service, Sept. 25, 2003

...But the Baghdad canine unit has not always received this kind of support. Before the war, the canine unit was moved to a facility outside of Baghdad. Here, the trainers received very little support. They lacked the money to buy training equipment, vaccinations and training manuals. Frasca said that the unit became so out of touch with the other police officers that they eventually became ineffective.

[higgmeister]

here is another appropriate link from WWW.USWarDogs.org

... A few days later, the Kurds brought an underweight German Shepherd who was obviously been neglected and abused. The dog was very scared and nervous, presumably from the long and frightening journey that it had made. From what we understand the dog was previously in the care of the Iraqi. He had been beaten and we could see the obvious scares over his face and front legs.

The dog is considered to be an unclean animal and therefore is not treated in the way that we, as Americans, are accustom to. Dogs are not considered pets or companions. The only two purposes for a dog in the country of Iraq are for sheep herding or as a guard dog. The Iraqi people try to refrain from touching a dog with their hands and will only permit themselves to touch the animal with their feet if they absolutely need to.

A couple of nights later, the dog did nothing but bark because there were a group of stray dogs outside of the fence looking for a few scraps of food. This may be a good time to mention that there is no dog food to be found in the country of Iraq. The dogs are fed only scraps from the families' food.