Retired military dog honored in Carson
Woman has adopted four canines that have finished their service
TAOS — More than 30 veterans and supporters gathered in late March at the nonprofit Veterans Off-Grid in Carson to honor one of their own.
The memorial service included colors and a 21-gun salute by the American Legion Post 142 in San Luis, Colo. — a fitting tribute for Puma, a retired military working dog who served two tours in Afghanistan as part of the Army’s Patrol Explosive Detection.
Veterans Off-Grid was Puma’s favorite place to visit.
The 50-acre compound is dotted with Earthships, greenhouses and other structures built from recycled materials. The group’s goal is to help veterans find housing and healing when they return from combat.
When Puma, a German shepherd, died from liver cancer at age 13, Lani Singh, a former Army medic who had adopted him after his retirement in 2016, decided to honor him with a memorial service.
“I think the public does not understand that these dogs save — on average — 150 lives when they’re in combat,” Singh said.
Military working dogs are often separated from their trainers when the dogs retire and the trainers redeploy. Most retired dogs don’t comprehend how to be pets and are generally euthanized.
“So I stepped forward, and I started adopting them,” said Singh, 54, who lives in Tres Piedras. “My first one that I adopted — in the first 20 minutes, I got on the phone and got ahold of a retired law enforcement canine handler. I said, ‘You’ve got to train me, because this dog is a weapon, and I have no idea how to deal with it.’
“The military still considers them equipment. You know, like tanks. Therefore, they do not receive any benefits,” Singh said. “They get no health benefits, not even burial benefits. I take it upon myself that all my dogs have had proper military funerals because they’re service members.”
Singh has adopted four retired military working dogs, and said Puma — who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder — was the easiest to train.
“Puma was very scared about anything collapsing over him. That was his issue. So maybe something had collapsed at one time,” she said.
Singh served in the Army from 2006-10 but never in Afghanistan. “I was injured 17 days before my unit was deployed, so they put me in the rear with the gear,” she said.
Weighing 102 pounds, she carried 139 pounds of gear on her back during a 12-mile ruck march at Fort Carson, Colo. Halfway through the march, she broke five vertebrae. “I knew something broke in my body, but I didn’t know what.”
“When they took X-rays, they’re like, ‘You’re in bad shape.’ And I think it’s just because I was small. And I was carrying 110 percent of my body weight.”
The U.S. military started the K-9 Corps in 1942 during World War II. Singh said since 9/11, 10,000 dogs have been deployed. The average age for military working dogs is 10, and the No. 1 cause of death is cancer due to exposure to carcinogens.
“These dogs are the military’s greatest assets,” Singh said. “These dogs are the ones who are finding the [improvised explosive devices] and preventing them from going off. The dogs have a 95 percent accuracy rate, and the military has no technology or equipment that can match a 95 percent success rate.”
When Singh decided to move to Northern New Mexico from Colorado with Puma, they stopped in Tres Piedras to look at land. Puma refused to get back in the car. She tried food, a collar — nothing worked. Puma sat under a tree, deciding for the both of them that this was the spot.
“I called the real estate agent and said, ‘OK, I guess it’s sold,’ ” Singh said. “Every day thereafter, he would lay under that tree. That was his tree. He deserves his own tree.”