Programs That Help Soldiers Bring Dogs Back From Iraq & Afghanistan

In theaters of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, where soldiers live with pressures that can and often do damage them psychologically for life, ordinary mutts rescued from the streets have been playing important therapeutic roles as morale-boosters. After months or years of sharing their lives with these beloved companions, many soldiers have found the prospect of abandoning them to grim fates after their tours of duty end to be intolerable, moving mountains to bring the dogs home to pass the rest of their lives in safety and comfort. Today, in addition to the many charities and nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping the human victims of armed conflict, a few focus their efforts on evacuating and re-homing these special dogs of war.

  1. Operation Baghdad Pups

    • This initiative (motto: Let No Buddy Be Left Behind) of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International (SPCAI) was founded in response to a plea from an American soldier serving in Iraq. In Baghdad, soldiers on patrol had found a half-starved, flea-ridden puppy and, in violation of military regulations prohibiting troops from sheltering animals in war zones, they scooped him up and sneaked him into their quarters, naming him Charlie, taking turns hiding and caring for him, feeding him from their own rations and nursing him to health. After his presence was discovered, higher-ups looked the other way but another regulation prohibiting the use of military transport to carry nonmilitary animals was inflexible. After months of trying to cut through red tape, the SPCAI finally came up with a $4,000 solution, sending a staffer to Baghdad to collect Charlie and fly him back to the U.S. on commercial airlines. He arrived at Dulles International Airport on Valentine̵7;s Day 2008, and now lives in Arizona with the soldier who first contacted the charity. Since then, Operation Baghdad Pups has evacuated more than 100 dogs and cats attached to service members in the Middle East.

    Nowzad Dogs

    • In 2006, Royal Marine Sgt. "Pen" Farthing took in a fighting dog that he named after the Afghan town where he was posted: Now Zad. After several other strays, including a mother with six puppies, sneaked into the compound and made themselves at home, British soldiers built a dog run for them, complete with a mortar shelter to take cover in. When it was time to leave, they could not bring themselves to abandon the dogs, which now included 14 puppies, and so took them across the country on a risky overland journey to an animal shelter. Nowzad Dogs, founded in May 2007, raised the money to send Nowzad and another dog to live with Farthing and his family in the U.K. and for another of the pack to be re-homed with a soldier's family in the U.S. Nowzad has also helped make arrangements for dogs to be brought to Canada to live with former military personnel.

    Puppy Rescue Mission

    • This group, headed by Anna Maria Cannan, has brought seven dogs from the Middle East to homes in the U.S. Puppy Rescue Mission, Nowzad, the Soldiers' Animal Companions Fund and other animal protection and veterans' advocacy funding bodies have worked cooperatively on rescue and re-homing missions.