[Reader-list] How 7 Dogs Got Between the US and Pakistan

[Pawan Durani]

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/dog-rescue-part-of-a-larger-pakistani-issue/19406942

(March 24) -- J.T. Gabriel received a message just before Thanksgiving
from the wife of a Marine: Seven U.S.-supplied drug dogs were facing a
certain death in Pakistan and needed to find adoptive homes.

But what began as a simple message about dogs soon became embroiled in
a larger issue of U.S.-Pakistan relations.

The seven dogs were the only ones believed to be left from a group of
more than two dozen specially trained canines provided to Pakistan
under a counternarcotics program funded by the Pentagon. Unused and
abused, the dogs were going to be euthanized within a month.

K9 Soldiers
Several of the dogs saved from certain death in Pakistan take a dip
following their return to the United States.

The wife of the Marine contacted the Defense Department, hoping to
save the dogs. U.S. officials were sympathetic but not in a position
to help. So she turned to Gabriel, who runs a New Jersey-based
nonprofit organization called K9 Soldiers.

K9 Soldiers, which Gabriel founded to support military dogs, wasn't
meant to be a dog-rescue organization. But then she saw pictures of
surviving dogs living in horrific conditions in Karachi, Pakistan,
where they were supposed to be used by customs officials looking for
narcotics.

"Of course, when I looked into the e-mail and opened the picture of
the abuse these dogs had suffered, it was impossible to say no,"
Gabriel said.

Three dogs were taken in by U.S. Embassy personnel in Pakistan. The
only option for the other four was to bring them back to the United
States because Pakistan doesn't have a culture of dog adoption,
Gabriel said.

A private individual agreed to take possession of the dogs, but K9
Soldiers still needed several thousand dollars per dog to cover the
shipping costs to the United States. Gabriel was concerned about
raising those funds in time. But the money started pouring in when she
posted pictures of the dogs on the Web.

"We were able to raise $20,000 in two weeks," she said, "which just floored me."

Still, Gabriel encountered bureaucratic problems getting the dogs out
of Pakistan, she said. She asked a congressman and the State
Department for an inquiry into the issue, hoping to draw attention to
the story of abuse.

Then she got word from someone she describes as "high up in
counternarcotics in Pakistan" who asked that she take down the
pictures of the abused dogs she had posted on her Web site.
Apparently, the photos were embarrassing the Pakistani government.

"I was spitting bullets," she recalled. "If they don't want to be
embarrassed, don't treat a living thing like that."

But she agreed to take down the pictures to move the process forward.
The dogs were soon handed over and ready to be sent back to the United
States. The last one, a black Labrador named "Sammy," arrived last
month.

This is not just a shaggy dog tale. The canines are part of a larger
problem that has characterized U.S. security and military aid for
Pakistan, which has reached more than $10 billion since 9/11. The
assistance has been aimed at helping Pakistan combat militants and
police its border with Afghanistan, but it has long been fraught with
allegations of misuse.

One problem is that Pakistan will often accept equipment, such as
helicopters, but not the training that goes with it, according to Lisa
Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Asian
Studies Center. "In terms of the broader security assistance, what the
U.S. has tried to do is ensure that appropriate training is provided,"
Curtis said. "I think in the past that has not always been the case."

Richard Douglas, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of
defense for counternarcotics under George W. Bush, said he couldn't
comment on the specific case of the Pakistan canines. However, he
recalled declining to fund a similar drug dog program for a foreign
country because of concerns that the animals would not be properly
cared for.

K9 Soldiers
The last of the dogs, who were among more than two dozen canines given
to Pakistan for a counternarcoctics program, was returned to the
United States in February.

But Douglas also said it is important to understand the unique
difficulties that Pakistan faces.

"I know from personal experience that Pakistani public security forces
carry a counterterror and counterdrug burden whose magnitude is not
fully perceived in the West," he said. "They do so without adequate
resources and in harsh and unforgiving terrain, both topographically
and politically."

The Defense Department was not able to provide comment about the drug
dogs by publication time. A spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy did
not respond to a request for comment. Pakistan's army chief is in
Washington this week to meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and
other senior military officials as part of a weeklong strategic
dialogue meant to strengthen bilateral relations.

For Gabriel, the issue is not relations with Pakistan, but making sure
there is proper training in those countries that receive canines and
proper oversight of the private contractors that supply them. "We
don't want to unnecessarily embarrass the Pakistanis," Gabriel
insisted.

Nor is providing trained dogs to allied countries always a bad thing,
she noted. "I know that our military had an international canine force
in Iraq, and I have heard and received pictures of Iraqis training
with our American military," she said. "They come to love the dogs and
understand they aren't wild dogs; these are dogs that have a unique
talent to save citizens and military personnel from explosives and
narcotics."

In the case of the surviving Pakistan dogs, the story at least has a
happy ending. The four dogs are recovering. Gabriel has found
permanent homes for all of them, including one that was placed with a
U.S. Navy canine handler.

"They are the happiest dogs I've ever seen," she said. "Somehow they
know they're back in America."