Dogs working alongside military troops are considered equipment. In other words, a dog that sniffs for bombs is no different than a metal detector.
That means when retirement comes, the military can declare that the thousands of dollars that it costs to bring a dog back from a place as far as Afghanistan isn’t worth it. The Defense Department deems the transports as “waste, fraud and abuse,” according to Debbie Kandoll.
Dogs should be classified as specialized equipment. When i was a handler back in the 1980’s that was how we classed them. Dogs were left behind at each base as the handler moved on. I worked half a dozen different dogs during my military service. They can easily be shipped back to the states and placed for adoption. I flew with 15 dogs in a C-5 transport from the states to the far east and it did not cost any extra, as there are transport planes flying all the time we just hitched a ride. The idea of making the dog a serviceman is stupid. What will be next monkey’s? Did anyone see planet of the apes for god sake? Make a dog a Sargent and your son the private will be left in the war zone and the dog will come home because he outranks the kid. lets not be too politically correct when we are fighting a war. Let the dogs protect our soldiers like they are trained to do and pray our children come home us. Thank you.