Popular adages may promise every dog its day, but the sad reality is canines that serve in the US military — sniffing out bombs, mines and other explosive devices — aren’t even guaranteed return transport after multiple tours of duty overseas.
Often, they are left behind with new owners abroad when their handlers return home.
“The dogs and these veterans work side by side. To separate them, I think, is a crime,” says Lois Pope, a longtime veterans advocate who began lobbying last year to return all four-legged defenders to the states for adoption by the servicement with whom they’d bonded.
