I am currently watching the film, The Vietnam War. This brilliant film is 18 hours long and activates a huge range of personal emotions. I recommend that anyone interested in peace-making watch it if they get the chance.
So far, though, nothing is mentioned of the nonhuman war casualties. I just found the following quote by a Vietnam veteran on the internet.
“An estimated 5000 working dogs (some figures quote 4000) were taken by US forces to Vietnam for mine, ambushes and booby trap detection. Fewer than 200 were returned home. The survivors left behind were classified as ‘equipment’ and were killed or abandoned. A few were handed over to the South Vietnamese military and police…I’ve heard it said that without our military dogs, there would be 10,000 additional names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. I, for one, think that’s an understatement.”
Richard Cunningham, The Dogs of the Vietnam War, nytimes.com, 3 October 2017. Richard Cunningham was a sentry dog handler in Vietnam and later worked with the New York Police Department.
*While Quaker Concern for Animal members consider nonhuman animals used by the military to be ‘victims’ and not ‘heroes’, I, for one, appreciate that soldiers who respect their working animal companions would, when speaking about them, will use terms such as ‘serve’ and ‘devotion to duty’ sine, in a way, this is acknowledging their equality. The Vietnam war was an unimaginable experience and tragedy for civilians, nonhuman animals – and a whole generation of recruited soldiers. I recognise and respect the deep heartbreak that many in the armed forces experienced – and continue to experience – on having to abandon their working companions. In the US today this grief is expressed in books by soldiers published since the war and on the many websites and memorials to working military animals.
I am currently watching the film, The Vietnam War. This brilliant film is 18 hours long and activates a huge range of personal emotions. I recommend that anyone interested in peace-making watch it if they get the chance.
So far, though, nothing is mentioned of the nonhuman war casualties. I just found the following quote by a Vietnam veteran on the internet.
“An estimated 5000 working dogs (some figures quote 4000) were taken by US forces to Vietnam for mine, ambushes and booby trap detection. Fewer than 200 were returned home. The survivors left behind were classified as ‘equipment’ and were killed or abandoned. A few were handed over to the South Vietnamese military and police…I’ve heard it said that without our military dogs, there would be 10,000 additional names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. I, for one, think that’s an understatement.”
Richard Cunningham, The Dogs of the Vietnam War, nytimes.com, 3 October 2017. Richard Cunningham was a sentry dog handler in Vietnam and later worked with the New York Police Department.
*While Quaker Concern for Animal members consider nonhuman animals used by the military to be ‘victims’ and not ‘heroes’, I, for one, appreciate that soldiers who respect their working animal companions would, when speaking about them, will use terms such as ‘serve’ and ‘devotion to duty’ sine, in a way, this is acknowledging their equality. The Vietnam war was an unimaginable experience and tragedy for civilians, nonhuman animals – and a whole generation of recruited soldiers. I recognise and respect the deep heartbreak that many in the armed forces experienced – and continue to experience – on having to abandon their working companions. In the US today this grief is expressed in books by soldiers published since the war and on the many websites and memorials to working military animals.