Dogs for Defense
Dogs for Defense was a private organization in the United States that campaigned among dog owners for the provision of military service dogs after the United States entered World War II .
Just one month after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the organization was founded and began recruiting service dogs, and initially also training them with private dog trainers. By the end of the war, 40,000 dogs had been handed over to the organization, and more than 10,000 of them were trained to be service dogs.
founding
Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, several professional dog breeders got together with the support of the American Kennel Club . It was their intention to procure a large number of operational service dogs for the US Army, to train them and to organize advertising, coordination and financial support for them. The US Army had no organizational facilities to procure and train dogs at the time, and the need for guard dogs was only estimated at about 200. The War Department approved a cooperation between Dog for Defense and a department of the US Army Quartermaster Corps that was responsible for guarding military installations.
It soon became apparent that a small voluntary organization could not meet the US Army's very large need for service dogs. In June 1942, the US Army transferred control of the procurement and training of service dogs to the United States Army Remount Service , which was also responsible for the procurement and breeding of horses for the cavalry.
The US Army's first training center was established in August 1942 at the Ayleshire Quartermaster Remount Depot in Front Royal , Virginia. This facility was initially designed to train 200 dog handlers and 500 dogs, by June 1943 the capacity increased to 400 soldiers and 900 dogs. Additional training facilities were established in Fort Robinson, Camp Rimini, San Carlos, Beltsville and Cat Island.
Dogs for Defense kept the task of procuring dogs. Of the more than 11,000 dogs made available for the US Army by July 1943, the majority came from Dogs for Defense. The cost of providing a dog - without its actual training - was given as ten dollars, so soliciting financial support for the organization also played a large role.
education
At the beginning almost all dogs between the ages of one and five were accepted, provided they weighed between about 30 and 45 kg and had a shoulder height of about 50 to 65 cm. The US Army later published a list, reduced several times, of dog breeds that were considered for use at all. In 1944, the list had shrunk to German and Belgian Shepherds , Collies, Dobermans, Husky, Alaskan Malamutes and their mixed breeds.
The dogs handed over to the US Army were first examined by a veterinarian, vaccinated against rabies and kept in quarantine for 21 days. This was also important because at that time not only rabies, but also distemper and other canine diseases were a great danger.
The actual training lasted three months and was completed by the dogs together with their future dog handlers in order to immediately form a functional team. In addition to general information about keeping and caring for a dog, the training part for dog handlers also included a military part in which the possible uses of a dog were taught.
Most of the trained dogs were used in guard duty. There was also a soon-abandoned attempt to train dogs for combat. Other dogs were trained as search dogs or to carry messages or luggage.
commitment
The first service dogs were used as guard dogs in West Coast military installations, with guard dogs first being deployed on the East Coast in Fort Hancock , New Jersey. Service dogs from Front Royal were first used in combat areas on November 8, 1942 during Operation Torch in Morocco by the 3rd US Infantry Division . The last training of dogs and handlers took place during the crossing.
On June 6, 1944, service dogs were also used when the Allied troops landed as part of Operation Neptune . It was found that the dogs used reacted in a panic to the explosive devices detonating around them and the gunfire, but were later able to make an effective contribution as guard dogs. As a result, the dogs were specifically accustomed to fighting noises during their training in the United States.
After the end of the war, the dogs were prepared for their return to civilian life in a US Army facility. All surviving dogs were returned to their owners or referred to new owners at the government's expense. The great effort involved led to the fact that service dogs were only accepted on a permanent basis from 1946 onwards.
Public Relations and War Dog Fund
The public relations work of Dogs for Defense included extensive radio campaigns in which dogs from prominent owners such as Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fala or J. Edgar Hoover's G-Man played an important role. After the US Army took over dog training, dog recruitment and fundraising were the focus of Dogs for Defense's work.
The War Dog Fund , established in early 1943, was a way to financially support the campaign for owners whose dogs were either unsuitable for military use or who did not want to part with them. The registered dogs or cats were assigned an "honorary" military rank depending on the amount of the donation. With the payment of one dollar the dog became a simple soldier, for five dollars a sergeant, for ten dollars a lieutenant, for 25 dollars a colonel, and for 100 dollars a general. Ranks of the US Navy or the US Coast Guard were also available.
On behalf of Falas, the President's dog, the War Dog Fund subscribed to one dollar war bonds for each day of the year. The public announcement was an attempt to encourage the population to subscribe to the bonds. This also made Fala an "honorary service dog" for the Dogs for Defense organization .
The campaign for donations for the War Dog Fund was also carried out with radio campaigns lasting several weeks, and registration could be made by telephone or at information stands in large department stores. In addition, there was generous coverage of the campaign, as well as Dogs for Defense itself, in the editorial section of the newspapers. Information stands have also been set up at dog shows and similar events.
literature
- Fairfax Downey: Dogs for Defense , McDonald, New York 1955, 159 pp.
- Denzil F. Frost: A Centralized Source of Information for the Military Working Dog Program , Master of Military Art and Science Thesis, US Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS 1990, 330 S. Online PDF 11.8 MB, accessed on January 17, 2014 (with an extensive annotated bibliography on the development of the program in the USA from World War II to 1990).
- Erna Risch, Chester L. Kieffer: The Quartermaster Corps. Organization, Supply and Services , Office of the Chief of Military History 1955, pp. 323–337 (article on the development of Dogs for Defense and its role in World War II)
- Alvin P. Stauffer: The War Dog Program , Historical Section, Office of the Quartermaster General, Washington, DC 1943
Web links
- US Army Quartermaster Foundation , Bibliography on Military Service Dogs
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Tracy L. English: The Quiet Americans: A History of Military Working Dogs , unpublished article, Office of History, 37th Training Wing, Lackland AFB, Texas 2000, pp. 4–7 Online PDF ( Memento des Originals from June 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 1.7 MB, accessed January 17, 2014.
- ↑ a b c without author: 700 Dogs Entered In Show Of Saw Mill River Kennel Club . In: The Daily Argus , Mount Vernon, NY, April 15, 1943, p. 16
- ↑ a b c d Sarah Jane Brian: Canine war heroes , Macmillan / McGraw-Hill, New York, New York undated , ISBN 0-02-193444-4 , pp. 8-15.
- ^ A b Richard Ben Cramer: They were heroes too . In: Parade Magazine , April 1, 2001, ISSN 1839-6569 , pp. 4–6 Online PDF 1.4 MB, accessed January 6, 2014.
- ↑ Rosemary Christoff Dolan: War dogs: The soldier's ally, sometimes revered, sometimes forgotten . In: The Altamont Enterprise , November 25, 2004, p. 12
- ↑ without author: Plea for pooch. Capital stations campaign for War Dog Fund . In: Broadcasting , February 21, 1944, ISSN 1068-6827 , p. 32.
- ↑ Without author: Dogs and cats enlisted by capital stations for War Dog Fund . In: Broadcasting , February 21, 1944, ISSN 1068-6827 , p. 31.
