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Soldier Begging For Dog Food For Deployed Dogs
Commander Says Dogs Live Off Scraps And Garbage

POSTED: 2:58 pm EST January 5, 2005

LAS VEGAS -- The commander of an Army Reserve detachment is begging
friends back home to send food for Iraqi police dogs.

"The dogs are starving and urgently need dry dog food," Capt. Gabriella
Cook, commander of the Las Vegas-based 313th Military Police Detachment,
said in a Dec. 28 e-mail reported Wednesday by the Las Vegas
Review-Journal.

"Some of them have already died," Cook wrote. "Half of them are sick. We
have no way of buying actual dog food here."

Cook's unit arrived last month in the Iraq capital. She said 12 German
shepherds and one black Labrador retriever trained for bomb-detection
and attack at the Iraqi Police Academy in Baghdad have been eating table
scraps and garbage.

"It seems like an emergency situation," Diana Paivanas, a Henderson
pet-care provider and Cook's friend, told the Review-Journal. "Something
needs to be done now to save these dogs."

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., a veterinarian, directed a legislative aide to
contact an Army liaison to investigate, a spokesman for the senator
said. But when contacted Wednesday, his office said they were unsure
where to send donations and that they are looking into it.

Military officials at the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad
did not immediately respond to the newspaper's request for information
about the food supply for U.S. canines in Iraq.

Paivanas said she found it costs about $50 to mail a 30-pound bag of dog
food to Cook.

Henderson Veterinarian Terry Muratore estimated that each of the 13
working dogs would consume a 40 pounds or more of dry food per month.

"If securing the country entails having security dogs that are healthy,
then we should do that," Muratore said. "Surely there's space on a C-130
to get a pallet of dog food over there."

If you would like to help feed the dogs, you may send checks to the Las
Vegas Valley Humane Society. They are working with several companies to
ship food to the animals as soon as possible.

"PetSmart has donated a pallet of food, and we hope PetCo will do the
same," Judith Ruiz, president of the Las Vegas Valley Humane Society
said.

Ruiz said several companies have donated food and that with the money,
the Humane Society will be able to buy more dog food at a discounted
rate and will also pay for shipping to Iraq.

"All funds will go directly for the animals," Ruiz said.

The Humane Society is a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization. So your
donation will be tax deductible.

Send donations to:

     Las Vegas Valley Humane Society
     Funds For Dogs In Iraq
     2250 E. Tropicana
     Suite 19
     Las Vegas, NV 89119

Make checks payable to the Las Vegas Valley Humane Society. The group
asks that you indicate in a letter or on the check that you want your
donation to go to the dogs in Iraq.