Canine SEAL boosts war dog adoptions

Life after the military is looking brighter than ever for America's four-legged veterans since one of their own helped in the mission to kill Osama bin Laden.

War dog organizations say the number of people asking about adopting retired military canines has risen dramatically since the mission involving Cairo, the Navy SEALs dog tasked with tracking anyone who tried to escape from bin Laden's compound and alerting the special operations forces to anyone approaching.

Although about 300 retired U.S. military dogs are put up for adoption each year, military officials say they've received more than 400 adoption applications in the three weeks since the May 1-2 raid. In past generations, most military dogs were euthanized once their tours of duty were done.

"They made a really big deal about Cairo being a super dog but all dogs in the military are super dogs," said Ron Aiello, president of the U.S. War Dogs Association. "These dogs are fully trained, are worth probably $40,000 to $50,000 each at least, and it's a dog that has been saving American lives. It's kind of a hero in a way."

Aiello, a dog handler for the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, started his organization with other former dog handlers to teach Americans about the long and often sad history of the dogs that have been deployed with troops.

Military dogs are used to find explosives, insurgents and drugs, and to help search for missing people. Some are so highly trained they can work off leash and follow commands whispered by their handlers through a special communication system on the dog.

The dogs are credited with saving thousands of lives. Last year, Aiello said, a dog on patrol in Iraq detected a fertilizer bomb on the other side of the door in a building. The dog sat down and alerted U.S. troops, who spotted the explosive by looking under the door.

If the dog had not sat down, troops would have opened the booby-trapped door and the building might have blown up, killing all inside.

It's not cheap to adopt a military dog, in large part because adoptive owners often have to pay $1,000 to $2,000 to bring them back to the United States on commercial flights.

"All the animals find a home," said Gerry Proctor, a spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. "There's a six-month waiting list right now for people wanting to adopt. And (the applications) have gone up substantially since the raid."