588 | War and Animals to bring them home as well To this day, some combat veterans wonder if their canine comrades perished from neglect or were killed and eaten, as was customary throughout much of Asia at this time In the decades since, dogs have continued to be used to patrol airbases and military installations domestically and overseas Approximately 1,000 canines are currently deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, working as patrol dogs or in the detection of hidden explosives The military dogs of today are inducted soon after being weaned and assigned to Air Forceoperated kennels to become acclimated to the sound of gunfire and helicopters After they’ve mastered the basics, they begin to work alongside human handlers in more specialized training Belgian Malinois make up the majority of modern military dogs, but even diminutive canines such as beagles are of use, because their size is advantageous for working in close quarters such as submarines In the Middle East, dogs specializing in explosives detection by scent are in particular demand, because even in this high-tech era, nothing has proven as reliable as the canine nose, which can pick up specific scents at up to a third of a mile Today’s soldiers feel just as strongly about their canine comrades as their Vietnam-era counterparts The passage of House Resolution 5314 in November 2000, the first federal law to stipulate an adoption alternative to euthanasia for retiring war dogs, has resulted in many of the animals being able return to America Spec.4 Rayford Brown of Florence, South Carolina, and his tracker dog relax for a moment at FireBase Alpha Four, a U.S outpost near the DMZ in south Vietnam on January 2, 1971 Such dogs are used to track enemy troops and find booby traps and mines Many people are concerned with the ethics of using animals in war (AP Photo/stf)