Military Pets Foster Project

[Erika]

**Shelters Overwhelmed by Animals Left Behind by Soldiers**

Animal shelters around Fort Campbell, Kentucky are being swamped with
animals left behind by soldiers deploying to the Persian Gulf.

Dogs of every breed, shape and size are being abandoned in the Clarksville,
Tennessee - Hopkinsville, Kentucky area. Soldiers leaving for the Gulf are
not all aware of foster
programs that can care for their dogs when they are gone. Many dogs are
just showing up as strays, but others are abandoned in the shelters by
soldiers who feel like they
have no other options.

Just one more thing most of us never thing about- if you want to help, or are a soldier looking for help, click here:

http://www.netpets.org/netp/foster.php

 

[darthdarrel]

I wish I could,but I have my hands full with my bird

 

[Erika]

LOL Me too Darrel- between my 3 kitties at home and the 50 at the shelter- but I may make a donation. Tax return is coming soon I wanted to get the word out at any rate. :wave:

 

[Tramp]

A neighbor of mine is taking care of a Husky for a hometown soldier that left for Kuwait last week. How do I know? Cuz I asked him yesterday morning whose dog was barking at 2am.

That's a good program and I'm glad someone thought of it. It needs national exposure so soldiers know who to go to. Better yet, the military should include the name of this outfit to those getting deployment orders.

 

[jmarc63]

Erica thats prety sad, I would love to have a dog myself, and feel like I have always been a dog person. At the moment I am a cat person as well as I inherated my cat in my divorce and just kept her since. What I don't understand is how are the solders able to get a pet? , unless as I am surmising is that they live in private housing off base then I can see how this is happening.

 

[Grumpy56]

Thanks for posting this, Erica. I saw an article this morning about the area around Camp Pendleton having a similiar problem and they have a base shelter that is closing down because the marines who have been staffing it are getting shipped out.

To answer your question jmarc, some base housing allows pets, sometimes people get divorced and then they don't have someone to take care of the pet, many soldiers being shipped out or reservists so they had civilian lives before all this. There's all kinds of circumstances.

I'm going to loook into it here in the D.C. area, I'm sure we have a similiar problem here.

 

[jmarc63]

Originally posted by Grumpy56
Thanks for posting this, Erica. I saw an article this morning about the area around Camp Pendleton having a similiar problem and they have a base shelter that is closing down because the marines who have been staffing it are getting shipped out.

To answer your question jmarc, some base housing allows pets, sometimes people get divorced and then they don't have someone to take care of the pet, many soldiers being shipped out or reservists so they had civilian lives before all this. There's all kinds of circumstances.

I'm going to loook into it here in the D.C. area, I'm sure we have a similiar problem here.

Thanks for the info. when I made my statement I was thinking of full time active duty, I didn't even think of the reserves and the guard at the time i posted, but I can see where and why it is occuring, when I first read the article I thought single male and young, not households and lives

 

[CmdrTostada]

Originally posted by jmarc63
Erica thats prety sad, I would love to have a dog myself, and feel like I have always been a dog person. At the moment I am a cat person as well as I inherated my cat in my divorce and just kept her since. What I don't understand is how are the solders able to get a pet? , unless as I am surmising is that they live in private housing off base then I can see how this is happening.

I used to live in military housing, my dad was in the navy, and there were neighborhoods that were just military families, and schools. The one I lived in was off base, actually pretty far from the closest bases, but we were allowed to have pets. And my dad was full time, active duty.

 

[Erika]

Originally posted by Tramp
A neighbor of mine is taking care of a Husky for a hometown soldier that left for Kuwait last week. How do I know? Cuz I asked him yesterday morning whose dog was barking at 2am.

Tramp :lol: You must be exhausted.

I agree that it is such a wonderful program- not only for the pets (obviously) but also for the soldiers who have enough to worry about without having to wonder what will become of their Best Friends.