Dogs of war: canines key to saving lives in Afghan war

By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News ServiceMarch 28, 2009

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- As part of the dramatic U.S.-led buildup of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Canada is to nearly double the number of dogs its uses to sniff out roadside bombs and other explosives.

The dog surge, which will bring the number of canines under Canadian command in Kandahar to several dozen, is set to take place over the next few months. The animals, which are leased from an American company which also supplies the handlers, are part of a fast-growing multinational canine corps whose health is closely watched over by a U.S. army veterinarian and several assistants.

"These dogs are fantastic workers. They save lives all the time," said veterinarian Lt.-Col. Sharon Staples after treating Bartek, a German shepherd with scrotal dermatitis, which is among the most common afflictions of the military dogs in Afghanistan.

Other frequent complaints that Staples and her staff treat include sore feet, diarrhea, broken tails and canine Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Aggression is one of the signs of canine PTSD.

"They are in the same environment as the soldiers, but they have no idea what they are doing when bombs are going off everywhere," Staples said. "Some won't get back in a vehicle. Some won't get out of a vehicle. They are shaking all over. But some are fine later on and can go out and do other missions.

"Those that can't, and have PTSD, get re-deployed back at the base or get 'dispositioned' out" for a field injury, such as a lost limb, she said. It's the canine equivalent of a soldier getting a medical discharge.

The animals cost about $15,000 each and deploy from a compound at the Kandahar Airfield bearing the sign "Dogs of War." They're so highly valued that, when they're hit by snipers or blown up by bombs, they get priority for air evacuation over any human soldier who isn't wounded.

"A wounded soldier will kick a dog off a helicopter flight, but nothing else will," Staples said. "A wounded dog trumps a healthy soldier."

In one case a dog, its handler and a veterinarian technicians were sent by hospital plane from Kuwait to Germany so that the animal could receive specialized treatment of its war wounds, said Staples, a 49-year-old reservist from Colorado who is one of several hundred veterinarians in the U.S. army.

It is precisely because they are such a huge asset to soldiers in the field that the Taliban often aim at the dogs during a firefight, she said. For the third time since 2005, a dog was killed recently by an IED while working with U.S. forces.

It is too hot in Afghanistan for some German shepherds. Breeds that have less heat stress potential include relatively short-coated Dutch shepherds and Belgian shepherds known as Malinois.

"We've had phenomenal success with the dogs, especially with the Canadians," said Philip Law of American K-9 Detection Services, which provides dogs and dog handlers - all with previous military or police experience with dogs - to U.S. and Canadian forces.

"The Canadians are the easiest to work with because they have the best logistical system to get people and dogs in and out; their soldiers have no experience with dogs so they leave our handlers to do their jobs, whereas U.S. forces have often worked with dogs before and think they know what to do."

A bomb dog's working career lasts between seven and 12 years. Many of them end up in the homes of their handlers; they can, however, be difficult pets.

"They are high strung and meant to be that way," Staples said. "Most of them have obsessive compulsive disorder. They are like dogs that never tire of chasing a ball."

One of the biggest problems that Law and Staples have faced has been soldiers and civilian contractors who have wanted to take the stray dogs that they have found in Afghanistan back home as pets. This has been strongly discouraged by the military after several rabid dogs from Iraq ended up in the United States. Rabies is endemic in Afghanistan, too, but it is much more common in the north than around Kandahar.

The veterinarian unit at the Kandahar Airfield regularly conducts rabies tests on some of the surprisingly wide range of animals that live in the desert. These animals include hedgehogs, porcupines, rats, mice, jackals, feral cats and an endangered species known locally as jungle cats - including one nicknamed Jack Sparrow, who has been repeatedly picked up hunting on the base and released far away.

"We're seeing some big-ass male feral cats here that can weigh 15 or 16 pounds and have tufts in their ears, which makes us believe that they have been mating with the jungle cats," said Staples, whose unusual military trade has taken her to the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq.

Other than having to euthanize feral cats and dogs when they are found roaming the airfield, "which we understand is necessary, but is not fun because we love animals and do not want to kill them, we really have a blast here," Staples said.