Military Working Dogs Have Their Day in DC!

Posted on 6th December, by Kevin Hanrahan in Dog Advocate.

Back on March 7, 2011 my post informed you that military working dogs are classified as equipment in the military and subsequently:

1. Retired Military Working Dogs are stranded at their final duty station.
2. Military Working Dogs receive no medical benefits after retirement.
3. Military Working Dogs receive no recognition for their faithful service.

I told you that this wasn’t the military doing….rather our politicians. I asked you to write your Congressmen and encourage them to support the Canine Member of the Armed Service Act.

You did and the act passed the House of Representatives in May.

Thank you.

Though we knew the struggle wasn’t over so I asked you to write to your Senators urging them to support this bill. You did.

Thank you

This week the act passed the Senate and now our four- legged heroes are even closer to being considered members of the armed service.

The act still needs to be signed into law by the President.

There were so many forces behind this act from Lisa Phillips Founder and CEO of Retired Military Working Dog Association to Ron Aiello at United States War Dog Association to you who wrote your legislatures and demanded that this country cares for our 4- legged veterans properly.

As an Army Officer with strong ties to the Military Working Dog Community I say thank you to all that have helped.

I thought it was only appropriate, as a tribute to our retired military working dogs, to share some pictures of our retired heroes!

The featured picture at the top of the page is MWD (R) Rambo (USMC), who now resides with founder and CEO of Retired Military Working Dogs, Lisa Phillips. It was Lisa’s college paper on the subject of retired military dogs, which drew the interest of Congressman Jones, which got this whole ball rolling!

Reprinted with permission from Kevin Hanrahan in Dog Advocate.