Military Opens $15M Hospital For War Dogs

San Antonio Center's Director Calls It "The Walter Reed Of The Veterinary World"

(AP)  A new $15 million veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment for combat-wounded dogs.

Dogs working for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration are trained at the base to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines. Some 2,500 dogs are working with military units.

Like soldiers and Marines in combat, military dogs suffer from war wounds and routine health issues that need to be treated to ensure they can continue working.

Dogs injured in Iraq or Afghanistan get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany for care. If necessary, they'll fly on to San Antonio for more advanced treatment - much like wounded human personnel.

"We act as the Walter Reed of the veterinary world," said Army Col. Bob Vogelsang, hospital director, referring to the Washington military medical center that treats troops returning severely wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The dogs can usually return to combat areas if they recover at the Military Working Dog Center, he said.

Before the center opened, veterinarians treated and rehabilitated dogs in a cramped building that opened in 1968, when the military trained dogs for work in Vietnam.

The hospital was already overloaded by Sept. 11, 2001, but since then, demand for military working dogs has jumped dramatically. They're so short on dog breeds such as German shepherds, Labrador retrievers and Belgian Malinoises that Lackland officials have begun breeding puppies at the base.

Lackland is training 750 dogs, which is nearly double the number of dogs there before the Sept. 11 attacks, Vogelsang said.

To treat the trainees and injured working dogs, the new hospital has operating rooms, digital radiography, CT scanning equipment, an intensive care unit and rehab rooms with an underwater treadmill and exercise balls, among other features. A behavioral specialist has an office near the lobby.

"This investment made sense ... and somehow, we were able to convince others," said retired Col. Larry Carpenter, who first heard complaints about the poor facilities in 1994 and later helped to launch the project.

Training a military working dog takes about four months. With demand outstripping the number of dogs available, hospital and veterinary workers were trying to keep them healthy and working as long as possible, Vogelsang said.

Working dogs usually enter training at 1½- to 3-years-old, and most can work until they're about 10, he said.

Then, the military tries to adopt them out and "station them at Fort Living Room," Vogelsang said.

[candy-apple]

"We act as the Walter Reed of the veterinary world,"

I should hope that they act better that Walter Reed or we''ll have a lot of crazy dogs out in the world.

[usmcvn1]

Now if only america''s Veterans could get good medical care.

[ctphemale]

I''m so happy they''ve done this. These dogs deserve the best care available. I hope someday soon when the MWDs are retired they will have their medical bills covered for the folks who have such bigs hearts to adopt them.

[dogger620]

watchout, ACORN will be there trying to register the pooches next

[redbds]

What a wast of $15 million.

Posted by Upto1947 at 07:04 AM : Oct 22, 2008

Actually this facility will pay for itself in a few years. The amount of momey it would take to train new dogs to replace the ones rehabilitated here would be much more than $15 million.

[meispam]

I am thrilled as animal rights crusader, to hear that finally the government is getting the message. War dogs, rescue dogs, and police dogs deserve the care and love given to their human counter-parts. They work hard and are very loyal to their cause and place. The dogs perform task that are almost impossiable for humans to do. A big thank you goes out from me and I am sure many more animal lovers alike. Support the medical care, love and respect these loyal and life-saving canines deserve. We need them as much as they need us.

[labettis]

For those of you that think this was a waste of money that should have been used on people instead, go back and re-read the story. These dogs are used to go places and do things to protect our soldiers. Without them there would be alot more soldiers wounded and killed by explosive devices and land mines. They are so much in demand, that the military has started breeding them to help the supply. So this money is used for the dogs, but it is also a great benefit for our soldiers.

[userlky]

I guess those of you saying its a waste should hope you never need a dog to save you under a pile or rubble or find the missing child who is lost. I''d take animals over most people any day of the week!!

[greeneyes222]

What a great facility. The money is well-spent; far better than a lot of other things I could name.

This kind of restores my faith in humans ... I''ve always had faith in the dogs.

[markgud]

dogs covered our ***** moving out of caves 10,000 years ago-- they are still keeping us safer!!
For the thousands of dogs who need retraining, good for them.For those that don''t make it, god speed..