UK special forces in Afghanistan are parachuting German shepherd dogs with video cameras into Taliban strongholds to search buildings for insurgents, with at least eight animals killed during operations.
The dogs are strapped to the chest of their handlers for the drops, and cameras are attached to their heads to feed back images of buildings and surrounding areas. The tactics have been adapted from US special forces, but the Ministry of Defence said it would not comment on a report on operations by SAS troops.
The dogs are reportedly trained to attack armed people, and eight of them have died in action so far. "But that would be eight SAS men," a source told the Times.
Animal rights campaigners expressed their outrage at the use of dogs by British forces in Afghanistan. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) said: "Dogs are not tools or "innovations" and are not ours to use and toss away like empty ammunition shells."
But it's not the first time an army has turned to canine helpers to assist in dealing with an enemy.
In the second world war the Russian military trained dogs to run underneath tanks and armoured vehicles. When faced by attack from the German's Panzer forces the dogs would be sent forward with explosives strapped to their bodies. The detonator was a rod which extended upwards from the explosive pouches the dogs wore. When they ducked under tanks, as they had been conditioned to, the rod would hit the hull of the vehicle, detonating bomb and dog. The anti-tank dogs experienced mixed success. One of the main problems with their deployment was the hounds' tendency to turn tail at the sound of enemy gunfire – they had been trained to run under stationery, non-firing tanks to save fuel and ammunition – and run back to the Soviet trenches, exploding and killing comrades on arrival.
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