Well we all knew my kind, dogs, would make it here eventually.
From war to lab experiements to being food we've seen it all. Maybe now you can see why we are so passionate about uncovering the truth.
Let's start with ancient history.
In ancient times, dogs, often large mastiff-type breeds, would be strapped with armour or spiked collars and sent into battle to attack the enemy. This was especially done with civilizations like the Romans and Greeks.
I mean look at him. Who wouldn't immediately lose all bravery you entered into battle with after seeing him charging at you with spikes and sharp teeth.
In WWI dogs served a more menial task. the Belgian Army used dogs to pull their Maxim guns on wheeled carriages and supplies or reportedly even wounded in their carts, as stated in the book "The First World War" by H.P. Willmott. Two dogs of the sturdy and docile Martin Belge breed were used to pull each machine gun or ammunition cart. Already in common civilian use and cheap to buy and feed, the dogs proved hardier and more suitable for military use under fire than packhorses. The dogs were officially withdrawn from military use in December 1916, although several months were needed before horse-drawn carts and motor vehicles had fully replaced them.
Though we can't forget the most famous dog of all WWI.
Sergeant Stubby!
He pretty much won the war.
In his first year of battle, Stubby was injured by mustard gas. After he recovered, he returned with a specially designed gas mask to protect him. He thus learned to warn his unit of mustard gas attacks, locate wounded soldiers in no man's land, and—since he could hear the whine of incoming artillery shells before humans—became very adept at alerting his unit when to duck for cover. He was solely responsible for capturing a German spy in the Argonne, leading to their unit's commander nominating Stubby for the rank of sergeant.
According to Winston Groom, Another program attempted during World War II was suggested by a Swiss citizen living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. William A. Prestre proposed using large dogs to kill Japanese soldiers. He persuaded the military to lease an entire island in the Mississippi to house the training facilities. There, the army hoped to train as many as two million dogs. The idea was to begin island invasions with landing craft releasing thousands of dogs against the Japanese defenders, then followed up by troops as the Japanese defenders scattered in confusion. One of the biggest problems encountered was getting Japanese soldiers with whom to train the dogs, because few Japanese soldiers were being captured. Eventually, Japanese-American soldiers volunteered for the training. Another large problem was with the dogs; either they were too docile, did not properly respond to their beach-crossing training, or were terrified by shellfire. After millions of dollars were spent with inconclusive results, the program was abandoned.
This program was abandoned, but wasn't forgotten. The government just had to think up new ways to use the dogs skills. And of course they did. Attack dogs didn't work? Why not sentry dogs instead. I guess they didn't want to stick to the sentry geese from our last post.
Enter sentry dogs.
According to the War Dogs archive, one of the earliest military-related uses, sentry dogs were used to defend camps or other priority areas at night and sometimes during the day. They would bark or growl to alert guards of a stranger's presence. During the Cold War, the American military used sentry dog teams outside of nuclear weapons storage areas. A test program was conducted in Vietnam to test sentry dogs, launched two days after a successful Vietcong attack on Da Nang Air Base (July 1, 1965). Forty dog teams were deployed to Vietnam for a four-month test period, with teams placed on the perimeter in front of machine gun towers/bunkers. The detection of intruders resulted in a rapid deployment of reinforcements. The test was successful, so the handlers returned to the US while the dogs were reassigned to new handlers. The Air Force immediately started to ship dog teams to all the bases in Vietnam and Thailand.
The buildup of American forces in Vietnam created large dog sections at USAF Southeast Asia (SEA) bases; 467 dogs were eventually assigned to Bien Hoa, Binh Thuy, Cam Ranh Bay, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Tuy Hoa, Phù Cát, Phan Rang, Tan Son Nhut, and Pleiku Air Bases. Within a year of deployment, attacks on several bases had been stopped when the enemy forces were detected by dog teams. Captured Vietcong told of the fear and respect that they had for the dogs. The Vietcong even placed a bounty on lives of handlers and dogs. The success of sentry dogs was determined by the lack of successful penetrations of bases in Vietnam and Thailand. The United States War Dogs Association estimated that war dogs saved over 10,000 U.S. lives in Vietnam. Sentry Dogs were also used by the Army, Navy, and Marines to protect the perimeter of a large bases.
Sentries are of course still used today in overseas missions and as police dogs because of their superior hearing and smell detection and ability to squeeze into tight crawl spaces and find enemies.
These are all great success stories fed to us over time. What about the darker side to all of this research?
The next part of this post are going to be a bit graphic so just a warning. It was hard even reading research on these topics.
Outside of being trained to be heroes of war, their brave efforts haven't resulted in any immunity from the dark side of the nation.
Yes, animal testing.
In World War II, dogs took on a new role in medical experimentation, as the primary animals chosen for medical research. The animal experimentation allowed doctors to test new medicines without risking human lives, though these practices came under more scrutiny after the war. The United States' government responded by proclaiming these dogs as heroes (I'm sure to cover their butts).
The Cold War sparked a heated debate over the ethics of animal experimentation in the U.S., particularly aimed at how canines were treated in World War II. In 1966, major reforms came to this field with the adoption of the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act.
Despite the act's intentions, animal testing on dogs still happens today.
According to the Humane Society, over the last 3 years over 44,000 dogs were used in experiments each year in the United States.
Dogs are used to test the safety of drugs, medical devices and pesticides such as weed killer, insect repellent, and rat poison. This kind of testing tries to determine how a substance, ingredient or device will affect human health. Dogs used for testing are fed quantities of the test substance—such as a weed killer or a new medicine under development—on a daily basis for months and observed for harmful effects. These substances can be given to the dogs in their food, as pills or through force-feeding. They are sometimes injected with substances or forced to inhale them. Most dogs used in these kinds of tests are eventually killed so that their tissues and organs can be examined. In order to test medical devices or other products, dogs are implanted with items such as pacemakers and typically killed after the test is over.
Dogs are also used in many types of biomedical experiments, including cardiac, neurological, respiratory and dental experiments. Dogs may be specially bred to have a fatal disease, such as muscular dystrophy. In other cases, healthy dogs will be operated on to give them symptoms of serious conditions like heart disease or to remove or damage some of their organs and then further experimented upon. They are also typically killed after the experiment is over.
More than 250 institutions in the U.S. report using dogs in experiments each year, including chemical, pesticide and drug companies (and the contract laboratories that carry out dog tests for these companies), public and private universities, community and technical schools, government-owned facilities, Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities and hospitals.
Just a quick glance for Charles River Laboratories has PETA thankfully exposing them as seen in the screen shot below (or click here to visit the page):
So if over 90% of experiments performed on animals fail to prove any usefulness in human trials, why are they so widely done still? Look at the history of war dogs. Didn't work to storm a beach with dogs in Japan so they gave up the project (presumably). What's the point? Are there tests we don't know about that the government or these chemical companies are performing to continue to make testing on dogs so lucrative? What future experiment are they cooking up that we are missing? We already have mechanical squirrel tests, bird drones, shark missles, and goose alarms. These companies are taking dog testing to a whole new dystopian level now though. This isn't about just testing makeup (which is ridiculous, just slap it on your own lips and see what happens. Stop euthanizing dogs to see if vivacious violet might give your lips a rash). This is going deeper. Follow the money (4 billion annually) and tell me there isn't a deadly chemical that's being tested for future use by these companies. Chemical warfare? Viral? Who knows. Please email us with any information you may uncover dear readers.
We need Sergeant Stubby to free them all and just have humans test on each other.
Until next week,
Keep your doggos safe.
I am Snickers.
I am truth.
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