Conn. broker shocked by treatment of military dogs

Report cites lack of care, inspections

U.S. military service dogs are dying overseas from preventable causes, according to a government watchdog report, a situation Sen. Richard Blumenthal called “intolerable.”

“The mistreatment of brave working dogs betrays American values and security,” Blumenthal said in a Sunday tweet.

“At least 10” of the 100 bombsniffing dogs sent to the kingdom of

Jordan between 2008 and 2016 “had died from various medical problems,” according to the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General report. Others were still alive but “living in unhealthy conditions.”

A 2017 oversight visit “observed dogs dying of disease and heatrelated illness, dogs with hip dysplasia, inadequate kennels, overworked dogs, and ‘barely existent’ kennel sanitation,” the OIG report said.

The primary recommendation had been for the Department of State to cease sending working dogs to countries that mistreated them and barred inspectors from checking ont he welfare of the dogs, “until there is a sufficient sustainability plan in place to ensure their health and welfare.”

But since that report was released the Department of State sent an additional 20 dogs to Jordan, trained by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, under the antiterrorism assistance program. On Friday the OIG’s initial report was updated, after the department received word that more dogs were being mistreated.

That update described the deaths of several dogs provided both to Jordan and to Egypt.

Several dogs deployed to Jordan

“died of nonnatural causes” in June and September of this year, the OIG said — one dying poisoning from an insecticide, and the other from heat stroke.

The OIG’s September report quoted a veterinarian describing heat stroke as a “terrible death,” and the result of “negligence and improper care.”

In Egypt, another dog died of heat stroke in September. Another one had died of lung cancer; another died from a ruptured gall bladder. According to the

OIG’s prior report, “Egypt denied Department officials permission to visit the kennels or the airport where the canines would work.”

Michael Baton, who has trained service dogs for three decades, said Belgian malinois — a common breed of military service dog — “high drive, high energy, quirky.”

Baton, who owns American K9 Academy in Lisbon, Conn., said the breed would “probably be prone to something like heat stroke.”

“I imagine in very hot environments they could get heat stroke easily,” Baton said. “They’re very

wound up, high strung. They’ll work till they are dead. A malinois would work until they die.”

Bethany’s Meridith Vallillo owns CT Canine Services, one of a few service dog brokers in the United States. She explained that brokers will travel to Europe where most military dogs are bred — Slovakia and the Czech Republic, primarily — and then sell them to the U.S. Department of Defense, police departments and other agencies, which will complete the dogs’ training.

Vallillo said she was “surprised” to read that U.S. service dogs might be

treated so poorly overseas.

“I’m kind of surprised that that would happen,” she said. “As a matter of fact they get the best care possible.”

Of the 150 dogs Vallillo brokers each year, she said about 30 or more go to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Though the OIG report said inspectors checking on the health and welfare of the dogs were blocked in Egypt and elsewhere, Vallillo said she was incredulous.

“I would assume that we would be inspecting based on how the dogs are taken care of here,” she said.

Carlos Javier Sanchez | Contributor Staff Sargent Sarah Banks puts 6yearold Tarzan through the paces at Joint Base San AntonioLackland on Aug. 15.