Talking Animals: How they've been used in the military — and why they should be honoured

As Canadians visit cenotaphs and monuments across the country to remember and honour those who took up arms to defend this country and its way of life, it's also shone a light on military animals.

Anthrozoology professor Beth Daly joined Tony Doucette in the Windsor Morning studio to talk about the history of animals in the military and why it's important to honour them. 

Dogs being used in military missions. Is this a new thing?

We have been using many animals in wars in military situations since, at least, for any kind of military combat — before there was any kind of machinery.

WW I saw the use of at least 16 million animals worldwide. Many of those were horses. There were estimated to be at least 8 million horses — and they were used for things beyond just transportation. There were also mules and donkeys that were used to carry and pull machinery.

There were also carrier pigeons that sent messages, Canaries were used for the area of explosives. To read maps, they would use glow worms instead of flashlights.

I would imagine the life of a horse during WW I was difficult to say the least. What can you tell us about that?

It was not a pleasant existence for horses. They suffered greatly. That's probably why we have recently seen so many tributes to animals. As we have become more and more aware of the role that animals played in the war, we've become much more respectful in honouring them when we talk about the sacrifices that were made in the wars.

What breed of dog is most likely to be used in the military?

In WW I, the Germans had already planned to use dogs. They were way ahead of the British. Col. Richardson — who is a retired military man — saw that the Germans were bringing over many Collies. He got this idea that if the Germans are using dogs, we should be doing it too. The British, at this time, had only one dog. The Germans had thousands.

So he organized and opened the British War Dogs School. At that time, they would use stray dogs. They would contact the Battersea humane society, the biggest one in London.

When they exhausted those dogs, they turned to the public and asked the public to donate their pets. They did that in WW II as well. So stray dogs were, at that time, the go-to dog. Any dog that was willing to fight and was trainable was considered.

What did they use them for?

They used them for various things. Collies were great messenger dogs because they could literally deliver messages between soldiers on the battleground. As we see now, they were bomb-sniffing dogs and that was the most common thing.

But the really sad, heartbreaking thing to think about is there were also dogs that were called mercy dogs or comfort dogs. They would wander the battlefield and soldiers who were dying would just hold them while they died. Their role was simply to comfort the dying soldier.

What's interesting is retrievers were not sought after, because retrievers want so much to please that they often would wait for commands or be too dependent on what people would tell them to do — so they weren't great at making their own decisions.

In current war efforts, we tend to see German shepherd-type breeds are the most common.

How are they trained in order to be useful in military situations?

This is really interesting because we have the image of a tough dog and a tough soldier.

They are trained using complete positive reinforcement training methods, which means it's generally play training. They're motivated by their play drive. Dogs with higher play drives tend to be easier to train. They're only rewarded and they're not punished.

This was the same in WW I and II. This was the beginning of what we saw of positive training — the same way that we're supposed to teach children to behave. They would treat dogs that same way. There was no punishment.

In fact, at the British training school in WW I, if anybody was using punishment — which we know now is slapping a dog or using choke chains — they were dismissed as trainers.

Dogs, today, are trained using positive reinforcement, their favourite toy, whatever they can do to get their play drive activated for a reward.

Some of these animals are killed in combat. That raises questions about the ethics of using dogs. What's your take on that?

I guess I'm inclined to say, 'What about the ethics of using people?' We can say that dogs have no choice. But the reality is, if we got into a political discussion, many soldiers have no choice as well.

The ethics of war is a difficult discussion to have. I will say, if you ever talk to anybody who has had a military dog while they were in service, they say that dog saved their life. That dog is treated as any soldier is. I read one article that said in WW I or WW II, if a dog was injured, they were evacuated the same way a soldier was evacuated.

There is a relatively new movement to encourage us to remember these animals on a day like this. I assume this is something you support?

There's more than 16 million animals alone in WW I — and that has just continued. So the millions and millions of animals that have been used are memorialized in different ways. In Ottawa, we have an Animals in War Memorial.

If you go to Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, there is an actual memorial — a graveyard — for the dogs that fought. I think people are really starting to recognize that many soldiers' lives were saved because of the role of animals.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full interview below: