What happens to a pet whose owner gets sent to war or is deployed overseas? One thing’s for sure, the animal is not going to be welcomed onto a military transport or allowed to run around in a combat zone, and that’s probably just as well.
If a servicemember doesn’t have family or friends willing to take care of the pet for a year or so, re-homing is often the only option. This ensures a good future for the pet, but when the owner comes home (we hope), a part of his or her earlier life will be missing.
The Hawaiian Humane Society has stepped in to take care of this problem, the Army News Service says. It’s started the Pets of Patriots Program, open to active duty servicemembers who need temporary care for their pets. Volunteers, both servicemembers and civilians, take the animals into their homes. The owner goes on paying for the pet’s support, and the foster family may keep in touch and send photos.
So far, this is the only program of its kind. It’d be good to see it spread to other states, maybe even other countries. (Yes, Canada has soldiers in Afghanistan, too.)
Pets go into foster homes for lots of different reasons – we’ve fostered a few belonging to people who were in treatment for addictions. (Those cats were a handful, but I was glad to think we just might have removed someone’s last excuse not to go into treatment.) If humane societies can help recovering addicts in this way, they can help servicemembers, too. This isn’t about supporting or not supporting war. It’s about helping an animal and its owner, and making a contribution to the peaceful society we all want to see.
