Healing Heroes & Helping Hounds
By Michael Markarian
The bond between people and animals is a strong one — and can even be a healing one. Pets are good for our emotional and physical health, and studies show that having a pet can lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Caring for a companion animal provides a sense of purpose and fulfillment, lessening feelings of loneliness and isolation in people of all ages.
For wounded warriors and disabled veterans, caring for a pet can help them re-enter society and avoid stress or depression. And if the soldier suffered serious injuries while serving our country, a service dog can provide much needed assistance and critical care.
A bill introduced this year by U.S. Reps. Ron Klein (D-Fla.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) would help place dogs with men and women of the military. H.R. 3266, the Wounded Warrior K-9 Corps Act, would establish a program to award grants to nonprofit organizations that provide wounded warriors and disabled veterans with service animals such as physical therapy dogs and guide dogs. The grants will help organizations implement programs that pair assistance dogs with eligible veterans and soldiers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injuries, or loss of vision, hearing, or a limb, and a number of other injuries. The “commitment of the organization to humane standards for animals” is one of the bill’s criterions for receiving a grant.
U.S. Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) introduced similar legislation — S. 1495, the Service Dogs for Veterans Act — to create a pilot program on the use of service dogs for the treatment or rehabilitation of veterans with disabilities or physical or mental injuries. Franken announced after being sworn into the Senate that this would be his first bill, and he wrote about the many benefits of service dogs in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
“Yes, they provide companionship. But they can also detect changes in a person’s breathing, perspiration or scent to anticipate and ward off an impending panic attack with some well-timed nuzzling. They are trained to let their masters know when it’s time to take their medication and to wake them from terrifying nightmares. Service dogs raise their masters’ sense of well-being. There is evidence to suggest that increasing their numbers would reduce the alarming suicide rate among veterans, decrease the number of hospitalizations, and lower the cost of medications and human care.”
Because Sens. Franken and Isakson and Reps. Klein and Whitfield advanced these important measures, which reflect the broader celebration of the human-animal bond, Congress recently took action on this issue as part of a larger bill related to the Department of Defense and military spending. Thanks to these leaders, Congress continues to make progress toward improving our care for the men and women who serve our country, and improving our care of animals too.
The final National Defense Authorization Act for 2010 approved by both the House and Senate includes a provision that instructs the secretary of veterans affairs to partner with nonprofit organizations to conduct “a three-year study to assess the benefits, feasibility, and advisability of using service dogs for the treatment or rehabilitation of veterans with physical or mental injuries or disabilities, including post-traumatic stress disorder.”
A study doesn’t translate into immediate action, but it does provide a pathway for pushing a new issue forward in a military culture that is sometimes resistant to change. We expect a study to confirm what we’ve long known: that pairing vets with pets is good for both soldier and canine. It’s clear that this human-animal relationship helps our veterans, but it can also help animals. Retired Marine Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman, who brought a dog home from Iraq, has become a big booster of such efforts.
There is, in fact, innovative work being done around the country that is demonstrably healing broken lives, both canine and human. My friend and celebrity dog trainer Tamar Geller helped launch a program called “Operation Heroes and Hounds” at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in Southern California. She is teaching wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan how to train shelter dogs to make the dogs more adoptable. Both service members and shelter dogs learn a new set of skills that will make a positive impact on their future.
Let’s hope such programs expand across the country. A rising tide of compassion lifts all boats — it’s a way to support the men and women who served our country and give a second chance to the animals that ended up in shelters through no fault of their own.
Michael Markarian is chief operating officer of The Humane Society of the United States, and president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund. He writes the blog “Animals & Politics” at www.michaelmarkarian.org.
