Medal honor for brave labrador
Source: Agencies |
February 25, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
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A LABRADOR whose bomb-sniffing exploits helped save lives in Afghanistan was decorated for canine courage in a ceremony at London's Imperial War Museum yesterday.
Eight-year-old Treo joins a menagerie of heroic animals honored over the years with a special award known as the Dicken medal, including 32 pigeons, three horses and a cat.
Sergeant Dave Heyhoe, the dog's handler, said he was "very proud indeed," saying the award was not just for him and his dog but "for every dog and handler working out in Afghanistan or Iraq."
Treo merely flicked out his rosy tongue as he and Heyhoe posed for photographs with the medal.
The military nominated Treo for the prize in recognition of his help uncovering a series of Taliban bombs during his time serving in Afghanistan's insurgency-wracked Helmand Province in 2008. The labrador is the medal's 63rd recipient since its inception in 1943, according to the Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals, the charity that awards the prize.
Man's best friend has won a big share of the medals, including a collie named Rob who joined British commandos in repeated parachute operations behind enemy lines during World War II and Beauty, a terrier who helped locate pets buried beneath the rubble of bombed-out buildings in London.
More recently, Sadie, another bomb-sniffing dog, was awarded the Dicken medal for helping to alert coalition forces to explosives hidden under sandbags in Kabul in 2005.
Other animals, notably carrier pigeons used in World War II, have bagged honors as well.
There's no equivalent to the Dicken medal in the United States, although military animals have been honored on an unofficial, ad hoc basis.
Eight-year-old Treo joins a menagerie of heroic animals honored over the years with a special award known as the Dicken medal, including 32 pigeons, three horses and a cat.
Sergeant Dave Heyhoe, the dog's handler, said he was "very proud indeed," saying the award was not just for him and his dog but "for every dog and handler working out in Afghanistan or Iraq."
Treo merely flicked out his rosy tongue as he and Heyhoe posed for photographs with the medal.
The military nominated Treo for the prize in recognition of his help uncovering a series of Taliban bombs during his time serving in Afghanistan's insurgency-wracked Helmand Province in 2008. The labrador is the medal's 63rd recipient since its inception in 1943, according to the Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals, the charity that awards the prize.
Man's best friend has won a big share of the medals, including a collie named Rob who joined British commandos in repeated parachute operations behind enemy lines during World War II and Beauty, a terrier who helped locate pets buried beneath the rubble of bombed-out buildings in London.
More recently, Sadie, another bomb-sniffing dog, was awarded the Dicken medal for helping to alert coalition forces to explosives hidden under sandbags in Kabul in 2005.
Other animals, notably carrier pigeons used in World War II, have bagged honors as well.
There's no equivalent to the Dicken medal in the United States, although military animals have been honored on an unofficial, ad hoc basis.
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