Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

The British Army’s muddled attitude towards military dogs

Almost every day a new email pops into my inbox from the website ‘change.org’. One day they’ll be asking me to sign a petition to free Nazanin Ratcliffe, the next to lower the age for bowel cancer screening. Once you sign one, the requests keep coming. But the other day, one in particular caught my attention.

Novelist and former SAS sergeant Andy McNab had started a petition entreating the Defence Animal Centre (the home of the Ministry of Defence’s canine training squadron) to save the lives of three former service dogs. The three dogs – Kevin, Dazz and Driver – were all due to be put down this week, a decision that had the nation up in arms. Over 370,000 people signed McNab’s petition.

Two of the dogs, Kevin and Dazz, are former British Army dogs who have served in Afghanistan.

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