Soldiers take dogs back home to bust stress

Kabul: Spot made the clandestine journey from the Afghan Taliban stronghold of Helmand to the capital, Kabul, where he is undergoing medical treatment before moving to the United States to live with the family of the Marine who rescued him.

His ears clipped and tail severed from his days as a fighting dog, the surprisingly docile ginger and white mutt is one of hundreds being adopted in increasing numbers by foreign soldiers, who pay vast sums to take their new pets home.

"Dogs have been proven to help post-traumatic stress and the soldiers who adopt them are addressing this," Pen Farthing, founder of British charity Nowzad, an animal shelter on the outskirts of Kabul, said.

Animal shelter set up

A former Royal Marine, Farthing adopted his dog Nowzad, named after a Helmand district, during his tour there in 2006. He then set up the charity, where dogs and some cats are neutered and vaccinated against rabies before their journeys abroad.

Nowzad has given homes to over 330 dogs since it was founded, mostly to soldiers from the US and Britain, but also from South Africa, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.

It costs around $3,000 (Dh11,019) to get a dog from Afghanistan to its new home, and Nowzad relies solely on donations. It is now trying to raise $250,000 for a new plot of land.

The dogs' birthplaces in some way reflect the thrust of the Nato-led war against Taliban insurgents.

Restoring normality

"We're seeing more soldier rescues than ever before. When you're being shot at by the Taliban every day, dogs give you that little bit of normality," Farthing said by a row of outdoor pens holding black and yellow puppies.

Nearby stood Dshka, a grey hound rescued by a US Marine sergeant in Kajaki in Helmand, where British forces handed security to the US in 2010 as part of the American troop surge. His neighbour, Poppy, a small black dog from Kandahar, will soon go to a British soldier's home.

Afghans bring the dogs to the capital by car, often through large swathes of Taliban country over days.

Workers at Nowzad are now hoping that Afghans will begin to adopt dogs, banking on a changing attitude to owning pets.