Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Veterans want memorial to war dogs

|
|
 
  
Published: May 28, 2007 at 3:50 PM

WASHINGTON, May 28 (UPI) -- Congress is considering legislation that would create a privately funded memorial to dogs that have served with the U.S. military.

Until a 2000 law allowed them to be adopted, many of the dogs that served with U.S. soldiers were euthanized by military veterinarians, The Denver Post reported.

Most of the more than 4,000 dogs that served in Vietnam died there. Some were killed by enemy troops, some died of tropical diseases, and some were put down by military veterinarians or given to the South Vietnamese army, the Post reported.

"The day we stood down in 1972, (Gen. William) Westmoreland was pinning medals on us as I watched the South Vietnamese take our dogs away," Rick Claggett of Denver, who worked with a German shepherd named Big Boy, told the Post. "Today, talking about this, I still choke up. The government shouldn't have let this happen."

Claggett is a member of the Vietnam Dog Handlers Association, which is lobbying Congress to approve the war-dog memorial.

Topics: German Shepherd
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Father's Day: Celebrity dads The 2012 Miss USA competition Faces of the 2012 French Open
2012 MTV Movie Awards Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Notable deaths of 2012
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 21
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
George Soros tells Germany they have three months to save the EU, and it won't be through austerity...
North Carolina legislators plan to make exception this year only and keep liquor stores open on...
Old and busted: Pool parties. New blindness: Foam parties
Miss USA host: Name a movie that portrays women in a positive way? Miss Ohio: Pretty Woman
Remember ladies, beating your boyfriend because he won't marry you to renew your visa won't improve...
Try meth when you really have an itch, or when you want to see in two places at once. Warning: mildly...