One of the last articles I posted before three weeks of being too busy to write featured commentary about a recent incident where a grainy video clip purported to be of a young U.S. Marine throwing a puppy from a cliff. More specifically, I explored what would drive a person in such a position to do something like that.
Generally speaking, being thrown from a cliff is probably about the best thing that is likely to happen to a young dog in Afghanistan.
It makes no sense to us Americans, and things like this are cultural divides that will always keep us at odds with other peoples of the world.
In Afghanistan, there is a plentiful supply of feral dogs out wandering around. Almost no one keeps them as pets. I'd like to think that a few do, but in that society, anyone who does so is either very eccentric, an outright pariah, or else very secretive.
The exception to this would be shepherds, who do use working dogs. Otherwise, once you get into the villages and urban areas, keeping a dog is very much a taboo.
For reasons I'll never be able to appreciate, dogs are to Afghans and other peoples of that part of the world what rats are to those of us who reside in the west. And, having said that, I've got to admit that I even like rats. I don't care for the mess they make out of everything, but I've spent much of my life around them, and they are very fascinating creatures, even if not 'cute' per se. Still, there's no question as to how most Americans react to the thought of rodents. And that, friends, is largely the same esteem dogs are held in if they're unlucky enough to be in that part of the world.
In the beginning of that video clip that was prominently placed on the Internet almost a month ago, a full grown dog was hobbling around on three legs, and the ostensible Marines shown in the film both seemed to find it quite comical. Why would the dog be trying to run away without the use of one leg? It could be for any number of reasons, but most likely someone in or around that village had taken a shot at it recently and hit it in the rear left leg. I'm sure it hadn't eaten anything substantial for a while, either. Naturally, the Afghans hear about our affection for dogs, how much we spend on them in a year's time, and how many of us keep them, and find it as disgusting as it is curious.
My grandmother's dog passed on about ten days ago, ironically, on the thirteenth anniversary of her passing. (Even more ironic: her sister - my great aunt - died the day after that.) I never expected he'd make it so long, which I estimate to be age eighteen. My Samoyed is eleven this year, and I'm wondering how long he'll be with us. I couldn't tell you what an 'average' dog lives to be in Afghanistan, but I doubt it would be more than two or three years at most. Even if a dog was taken in and cared for by someone over there, I'll bet veterinarians who are willing to treat a dog are few and far between. I'd be curious to know just how many veterinarians can be found in Afghanistan, period.
Last week, an interesting feature article appeared in USA Today.
In January of 2006, a forty-three year old lieutenant commander in the Navy arrived in Afghanistan. He hadn't been there more than a couple of days when a reddish-tan puppy ran out from beneath a building while he was walking to a meeting. He wondered whose dog it was.
When it was time for him to return home six months later, I suspect he pretty much knew whose dog it was going to be. The trick was figuring out how to get it home, which is largely prohibited in the U.S. armed services.
The officer made arrangements with an outside contractor to send the dog, who he'd named Cinnamon, to his home after he departed Afghanistan. It almost worked - the contractor was able to get the dog to the airport in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, but transferring Cinnamon to the US via a civilian flight just wasn't working out. Out of options, the contractor had little choice than to let her go. An airline employee gave her to a local family. In the meantime, the officer's sister, who had spent time volunteering to rescue animals displaced by hurricane Katrina, contacted a woman she had met during her time along the Gulf Coast who was with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The woman from the SPCA had a rapport with a representative of the World Society for the Protection of Animals who actually lived in Bishkek. This representative was able to track Cinnamon down and smooth things out so she was on her way again. If I recall correctly, an Air Force Reserve chief master sergeant played a roll in consummating the canine's voyage, which took six weeks to complete.
This month and a half ordeal has paid dividends for others, too.
More US military personnel were wanting to achieve the very same ends, and were equally stymied in their efforts, if not more so. After all, a lieutenant commander in the Navy is the same grade, an O-4, as a major in the other services. A field grade officer can sometimes pull some strings that a company grade lieutenant or captain can't, let alone an enlisted service member.
Yet, enlisted men have been wanting to bring dogs home, too. An Army sergeant in Iraq was wanting to find a way to send a stray dog named Charlie back to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. By this time, the SCPA had heard many stories of this kind, and decided it was time for something to be done about it.
A few months later, the organization had succeeded in founding Operation: Baghdad Pups. One of it's initial successes was bringing Charlie into the US on Valentine's Day of this year. He should be arriving at Ft. Bragg any day now. Since then, five more dogs have followed, named K-Pot (after a slang name for the Kevlar helmet worn by US ground troops), Liberty, Bags, Oreo, and Socks.
It costs between four to six thousand dollars per dog to do this, and an SPCA person has to travel to the middle east, get the dog vaccinated, and then escort it to the United States. Apparently these funds are raised through donations and a partnership with ilovedogs.com.
For a typical dog in Afghanistan, the sudden fate of impacting the hard earth after a long fall before having lived long enough to experience starvation and being treated as vermin is the best outcome that is likely to happen, all things considered. But it is not the best outcome that can happen, thanks to dedicated individuals such as those who work for the SPCA. I understand that there are now over thirty dogs and a few cats that the organization is working to bring to a good home in the US on behalf of service members deployed to the mid-east.
As for Cinnamon, her immigration has been detailed in a self-published book, 44 Days Out of Kandahar: The Amazing Journey of a Missing Military Puppy and the Desperate Search to Find Her. The author, Christine Sullivan, says that she's donating the profits to the cause.
I do have to wonder, though; what do the Afghans and Iraqis think of us taking dogs out of their countries? While I'll never be able to identify with, much less agree with, the common consensus people have about dogs over there, maybe our willingness to remove dogs from their area will be something that they'll find ingratiating. We'll have to wait and see.
May better days lay ahead for all of us,
the TiGor
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