No Buddy Gets Left Behind

[ksmith]

Yes, there are too many people that are hurting now, and too many organizations that need support. We all have to pick and choose, and it's hard.

But I think this is worth some support.

Comments

[naomikritzer]

They've gotten a lot of publicity here because of a local woman whose dog got confiscated just before being put on a plane. (Thousands of outraged phone calls later, the dog's on its way to her, I think.)

The early articles noted that there are strict policies in the military against soldiers keeping pets while deployed. The problem is, to say "no pets!" and expect Americans to turn their backs on sad, hungry dogs and cats ... part of what makes us Americans is that we don't do that. Americans will almost always feed the animals anyway, and so they'll keep coming around, and so the soldiers will bond with the animals and care about their welfare and want to take them home or at least find them somewhere safe to live.

We are Americans, and therefore we care deeply about dogs, and I don't think this is something we should be trying to change. I'm glad the Minnesotan woman's puppy got so much coverage because they need to rethink how this policy is enforced, because as long as there have been American soldiers, they've been showing compassion to dogs.

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

We had a few buddy dogs in Iraq, local strays that really took to us. We'd regularly have "a sick buddy on bed rest" who somehow only wanted lots of red meat whenever we went through the chow line. ;)