#NotAllHeroesAreHuman

At Pet Health Academy, our goal is to teach humans how to be a pet's hero by teaching the skills and knowledge needed to save their lives. However, sometimes we need to step back and recognize the pets that are humans' heroes. 

Without many of our canine counterparts in the line of duty, we would be less effective at search and rescue, a thousands times less effective given a dog's nose alone. These animals deserve to be recognized and celebrated. In fact we recently just celebrated the 16th birthday of a 9/11 Golden Search and Rescue Dog named Bretagne, who traveled all the way from Texas to help search for the thousands of people buried in the rubble.

The most recent events in Paris are what sparked me to take a step back and change the focus from human's as heroes to pets as heroes. Following the tragic attacks in Paris on Friday November 13th, the French were performing a raid on a suspects' home that following Wednesday. While they were able to capture 7 suspects, one took the life of a canine police officer, a 7 year old Malinois named Diesel. Before the human police went into the raid in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, Diesel had been sent into the apartment building before the humans to assess the situation. Several sources state that Diesel was killed when a woman detonated a suicide belt that killed both the terrorist and Diesel. People took to the internet posting pictures of their pets with the hashtags, #NotAllHeroesAreHuman and #JeSuisChien (“I am dog”) to honor Diesel's life. Without his devotion and skilled training, the French authorities would have lost more lives and would not have been able to apprehend the 7 suspects. 

There was a wonderful gesture that came from Russia regarding Diesel's heart-wrenching passing. The Russian Interior Ministry announced on social media that Russia will give the French government a puppy, “This dog will be handed to France in a testament of solidarity with the French people,” the tweet said. 

But there are thousands of pet heroes we should celebrate. Going back to WWII, in my Boxer club we recently just celebrated on Veteran's Day, Vittles who was the only dog to log more than 130 missions from Erding, Germany, to Berlin and back. He even had his own parachute, on orders from Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay. Vittles brought comfort to his owner Lt. Clarence “Russ” Steber, a former Air Force pilot, who had acquired him in Germany. He realized he had nowhere to leave him during his missions so he started taking him on the planes with him. He boosted morale so much that Gen. Curtis LeMay made certain a parachute was made specifically for him so he could always be with the troops. 

So while it is crucial for us to know how to perform pet CPR & 1st aid to save our trained couch potatoes, let's never forget those pet heroes that save us. From search and rescue dogs to therapy cats, these animals have a greater purpose in life which includes saving ours.