Animals in warfare

commander_chihuahuaAs old as the mankind and his (or her, depending on your political correctness) domestication of animals, there have been quarrels, arguments, and even warfare that men have waged against his own kind. Of course, the man is a genius when it comes to instrumentation of physical harm and destruction, including the use of the animals around him.

As much as it is the ‘right thing’ to say that this is a form of animal abuse, I would have to refrain from pointing fingers at anyone because who’s to say what’s right or wrong in war? If men only killed men, is that any better or more fair than getting animals involved? Who’s to say. No, instead of making subjective or even political statements, I would like to point out the stupidity of using animals in something they are so foreign to: wars.

When I first researched this, I thought this was a joke. A story made by some military PR person.. or some comedy written during the times of war to lighten up the soldiers and the cilivians.

First I heard of the dolphins trained by the Navy in the past to act as kamikaze torpedos to blow up enemy ships and cut off air supply hose from enemy divers:

They are being turned into Kamikaze torpedoes, or trained to attach magnetic explosives to the bottom of enemy ships. Dolphins are also being trained in the swimmer nullification program, where a long, hollow hypodermic needle is placed over the snout of the dolphin for injecting compressed CO² into the enemy frogmen, the pressurized gas forcing the frogman’s internal organs out of his body orifices.

Right out of a sci-fi movie? Perhaps. It gets even better. The Soviets and the Germans trained dogs to act as kamikaze anti-tank bombs during WWII:

Anti-tank dogs (Russian: Собаки-истребители танков or Противотанковые собаки; German: Panzerabwehrhunde or Hundeminen, “dog-mines”), were dogs taught to carry explosives under tanks and armored vehicles where they would detonate and inflict the most damage upon the vehicle, killing the dog in the process. They were actively trained by the Soviet and Russian military forces in 1930–1996 and used in 1941–1942 against German tanks in World War II. The US military trained anti-tank dogs in 1943, but never deployed them. Dogs strapped with explosives were unsuccessfully used by terrorists in 2005 in Iraq.

This is serious stuff people. Not made up.

To me, this is dumb (more than cruel and unusual). Why go through ALL that training, treats, and pat-on-the-head just to blow up your hard earned trust? I’m no genius but doesn’t this equate to nearly zero ROI? It’s not like these animals secretly approach the enemies, drop the bomb, and safely return home to go on more missions. It’s a one time bing-bang-boom! Wouldn’t it better just to shoot a long range canon?

If dogs were so dispensable, why did the US military even bother making gas masks for dogs?

e4r3

dogman

 

Protect them against gas attacks, so you can blow them up later?

anti tank dog

Smart? No. Practical? No. Expensive? Yes. Just like Hummers.

If the leaders of the militaries of the world were ever to read this blog, I have a suggesti0n for a new crazy weapon that’s going to give you guys a new edge in modern warfare:

donkey with missiles

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