Man's Best Friend

My unit shares living space with an active duty Veterinary Company. Vet units have a somewhat unusual mission that includes both food inspection and controlling the animal population. There have been 2 different vets in the unit since I arrived in Baghdad. The first was a very nice person who told me about the unit's job and how difficult it had been when they were having to euthanize almost 15 dogs daily, not to mention the cats. He had the policy not to go looking for animals unless someone called reporting trouble or sickness. The unit also set out traps to capture some of the strays.

The new vet has a very different personality style and philosophy. She feels that all animals need to be euthanized due to the possibility of spreading diseases like Leishmaniasis. One day there was a very friendly dog wandering around our compound. It looked pretty healthy and seemed to belong to one of the neighboring units. It would sit and beg for a snack, was well trained and had a gentle demeanor. The vet showed up and decided she needed to put the dog to sleep and attempted to lure it toward her building. The dog must have sensed danger and would go nowhere near her. The next thing I knew she was threatening to shoot the dog right in the middle of the street, under the belief it was for the good of the army. She received enough flack from the soldiers present that she backed down and eventually left. I haven't seen that dog again, but hopefully it made it home to its temporary owners.

Dogs have been very helpful for morale and mission completion for some units. In Mahmudiyah there is a white dog named Cujo that lives on the FOB with the marines. Every evening when the marines start out on foot patrol, Cujo walks right beside them and runs off any Iraqis that come near their unit. About a week ago Cujo was hit by a car while on patrol, but continued his job of protecting the soldiers with a injured back leg. The marines helped nurse the dog to health and now Cujo is back on the job.