OPINION
As the BFD reported, another moving example of canine loyalty recently came to light in the US. When hiker Rich Moore died of exposure on a mountain trail, his Jack Russell terrier, Finney, stayed by his side for two months. When a hunter accidentally found Moore’s body, the dog was skinny but had managed to survive by hunting squirrels and other small animals.
As I wrote in that story, Finney’s story joined those like Greyfriar’s Bobby and Hachiko in the annals of canine loyalty to deceased owners. But dogs haven’t earned the moniker Man’s Best Friend for nothing. Dogs’ devotion and bravery shines through in even the worst times of war and terror.
Zanjeer was a Labrador who, as a bomb-sniffing dog, became a national hero in India. During his eight-year career, Zanjeer helped detect guns, over 240 bombs, 600 detonators, 250 hand grenades, 3,300 kilos of the explosive RDX, and 6,000 rounds of ammunition. But Zanjeer really earned his reputation during the 1993 terror campaign in Mumbai.
An underworld Muslim crime syndicate known as D-Company started planning bombings across Mumbai. Zanjeer swiftly got to work with his human and canine colleagues to track down the explosives. With his three-bark alert, Zanjeer notified his handlers of rifles, pistols, grenades, suitcase bombs, RDX explosives, and gelatin sticks. Though the 1993 Mumbai bombings took hundreds of victims, Zanjeer’s work saved countless lives.
The dogged investigator continued his work even after the threat in Mumbai had waned. Zanjeer maintained his job as a bomb-sniffing dog over the next several years and detected hundreds more weapons.
Zanjeer died from illness in 2000, aged just eight. He was honoured with a full state funeral.
Thousands of dogs, like other animals such as horses, pigeons and cats, served alongside the men in the trenches of WWI. “Mercy dogs”, as they were known (also, “Red Cross dogs”, “ambulance dogs” and “casualty dogs”) were first trained to acclimatise to the horrendous noise of battle.
Such dogs were accustomed to the sound of gunfire and trained to find people, pass by dead bodies, wear tiny gas masks, and even ignore German uniforms.
They carried medical supplies on their backs so that wounded soldiers could treat themselves until help came. If a troop was severely wounded, the dogs were trained to tear off a piece of his uniform and run it back to the trenches.
“At the command, ‘Hunt the wounded!’ the dogs dashed ahead into the woods, we following them as rapidly as possible,” one German account, reported by the New York Times in 1915, went. “[I]t wasn’t long before we heard barking… the dogs came running back to meet us and guided us until we came upon one poor devil who lay on the ground groaning, his eyes fixed on the dog… Fourteen wounded were found in the dark woods by our dogs who could never have been found by our ambulance men.”
Sometimes, mercy dogs simply lay with a dying man so that he didn’t die alone.
Most of these dogs served unknown except to their handlers and companions, but some became household names.
No one knows exactly where Sergeant Stubby came from. But this tiny, brave dog made a huge difference to his human soldiers during World War I.
Stubby was adopted by Private J Robert Conroy of Yale’s 102nd Infantry Regiment after he was found during training. When the troops shipped out, they smuggled their canine comrade with them.
Stubby, though small, stepped up. He learned to sound the alarm about gas attacks, which saved soldiers who were sleeping, and he darted out into No Man’s Land to track down wounded men. The brave little dog even survived a shrapnel attack and once sniffed out a German spy who was attempting to draw a map of Allied trenches.
For this, Stubby was promoted to sergeant. He went on to shake paws with presidents, served as the official mascot of Georgetown University while Conroy studied there, and was given a half-page obituary in the New York Times when he died in 1926.
Ships’ cats have a long and storied history of naval service, but at least one dog became a British navy hero – and possibly the only animal POW.
Judy the white English Pointer was bought in Shanghai in 1936 by British Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander J Waldergrave.
Before long, Judy became a beloved crew member of the HMS Gnat. When she fell into the Yangtze River in November 1936, the ship came to a full stop so that she could be rescued. The crew soon came to appreciate Judy’s ability to sense danger. She once sounded the alarm when pirates tried to board the vessel at night, to the gratitude of the crew members.
When WWII broke out, Judy was transferred to the HMS Grasshopper, a 585-ton gunboat bound for Singapore.
After Japan invaded Singapore in 1942, the Grasshopper was bombed by Japanese aircraft, and Judy and many of the crew members were marooned on an island, where she helped find fresh water. And when the British soldiers hiked to an Indonesian village, only to be captured by Japanese troops, they made sure to protect Judy from harm.
After hiding the loyal dog under rice sacks, a soldier named Frank Williams convinced the camp’s commander – who was fairly drunk at the time – to give Judy POW status. This protected Judy from harm, and Judy, in turn, helped keep Williams’ spirits up with her loyal and cheerful attitude.
Judy was finally liberated at the end of the war in 1945. The following year, she even received the Dickin Medal – sometimes called the “animals’ Victoria Cross”.
All That’s Interesting
For seven more stories of canine heroes, click on the link to the original story.