Abandoned.........

Today I discovered something I never knew happened or existed. I was quite shocked!

Every month I buy the Animaltalk magazine as I love animals and find the articles interesting and useful. This month however I was quite saddened by an article called Abandoned. A gentleman by the name of Gareth Crocker just wrote a book “ Leaving Jack” that recounts how hundreds of war dogs were simply left behind in Vietnam by the US military.

The author from South Africa has blown the lid off one of America’s most controversial modern day wartime decisions: to abandon hundreds if not thousands of dogs serving in the Vietnam War.

As the United States government began to feel the cost of withdrawing troops from Vietnam at the end of the war in 1973, they made a decision to leave behind many of their war assets, declaring these items as ‘surplus military equipment’.
Tragically, particularly for scores of dog handlers, the ruling extended to war dogs. This meant that, despite the countless lives these highly-trained and brave canine soldiers had saved, they were to be abandoned in Vietnam. 
The news was greeted with shock and disbelief by the dog handlers who, ultimately, were forced to leave their dogs behind.

It’s believed some of the handlers were threatened with arrest if they did not comply with the ruling. Some of the dogs were handed over to the South Vietnamese while others were simply left to fates unknown. Many would have been skinned and eaten; others would have starved to death. Without medication, some of the lucky ones would have been quickly lost to a combination of disease and the harsh South East Asia climate. All of them would have been alone and frightened.
The website www.war-dogs.com, which is dedicated to dog soldiers in combat, estimates that the some 3 000+ war dogs who served in Vietnam saved the lives of at least 10 000 US and Allied soldiers, yet only about 200 of them made it home. The web site carries a number of harrowing stories from dog handlers, many of whom have still not come to terms with what happened.

“There would be a whole lot more names on the Vietnam Wall without these dogs...”
          -- Dr. John Kubisz, 764th Veterinary Detachment in Vietnam