Army sends therapy dogs to Iraq
BY ELOISE PARKER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, December 14th 2007, 4:00 AM
Soldiers Iraq are getting a unique holiday gift: two Labrador retrievers specially trained as therapy dogs to ease the stress of combat.
"We expect each of these dogs to make a difference to thousands of lives over there," said Wells Jones, CEO of America's VetDogs Veteran's K-9 Corps in Smithtown, L.I.
"The dogs will help break the ice, build communication and bring a piece of normalcy to what otherwise can be a difficult situation."
VetDogs gave the 3-year-old Labs, Budge and Boe, to the U.S. Army's 85th Medical Detachment in Iraq yesterday, marking the first time in Army history that therapy dogs have been deployed.
The Army uses dogs for explosives detection and guard duty.
"Dogs have been the unsung heroes of our war efforts," said Maj. Stacie Caswell, commander of the 85th Medical Detachment. "Bringing therapy dogs into Iraq will take dogs to the next level on the battlefield."
Studies have found that canine companionship can provide health benefits, including lower blood pressure and higher levels of "feel good" brain chemicals dopamine and serotonin.
Now this type of story annoys me to no end. I have seen it pop up on CNN, NPR, and the newspaper.
Yeah, it's great these two dogs provide emotional support to our troops. But TWO dogs?? For how many troops? This is clearly a feel good story put out by the government/military to deflect attention to a situation that is getting increasingly messy.
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