BLOG |
By Mariah Krzanowski Ever wonder what non-human animals are used for currently for in the workforce or what kind of jobs they do on a day-to-day basis? Well that’s what I’m here for, I am here to tell you what non-human animals do today to contribute in law enforcement and military; also how they have made an impact in this area. War Dogs When people think about non-human animals in the US workforce they often think of K-9 dogs working with police officers; or dogs in general working as service dogs; but that’s not even close to all the non-human animals working with humans. Dogs have been working for the military for years now. They have been there throughout World War I, Korean War, Operation Desert Storm, World War II, and Vietnam. War dogs help detect bombs, attacks and apprehend weapons from enemies. The military also works with to dogs to become messengers, to get messages across to another sergeant or base quickly, as well as scout dogs. Scout dogs are pretty much the same as a war dog but they specialize in looking for enemies and unarming them if necessary. According to the United States War Dogs Association, police dogs work “patrol air bases, military compounds, ammunition depots, military check points, leading patrols, and clearing minefields.” There are over 2,500 military working dogs in the workforce. The negative effects on war dogs are that most of the time they are unable to come back with the army and have to be left behind. Another negative effect is that a lot of war dogs die trying to unarm enemies; most of the time before they are unable to unarm the enemy they get shot or injured. K-9’s in the Police Force K-9 dogs on the other hand have a little different job that war dogs. Police dogs come from all over the place whether it’s a breeder or a rescue shelter. Police dogs are trained to sniff out illegal substances, track people (criminals, missing person, etc.), search building, and to serve and protect the town in which they are working. Police dogs typically live with their handlers when they are off duty or further in their years when they are retired; indicating they are just like companion dogs when they are not working. K-9 dogs live and work with their handlers because they have to be connected and trust one another so they can perform specific tasks that involve bombs, human tracking, etc. In order for them to be able to go on duty in the police force the K-9 and his handler need to be able to pass the police test in order to get put into the field. If they do not pass the test then both the handler and his K-9 get sent back to the dog trainer to try to fix the problem or the K-9 potentially goes back into a shelter or put up for adoption. Dolphins & Sea Lions Dolphins and sea lions have also been a part of the Navy workforce for over 50 years. They work with them because they have speed in the water that no electronic device could compete with. According to the NacyTimes, their main area of work is to detect and recover mines, but also to impede enemy swimmers. When they are not helping with the major jobs; they help with port security which involves the dolphins using their sonars for the waterfront security, and sea lions using their eyesight and hearing to catch spies who are trying to get information on warships or plant mines. When a dolphin or sea lion locates a mine, using their extremely valuable hearing, they swim back to their trainer to receive a transponder that they then place back near the mine so the Navy can locate where it’s at. Another task is when sea lions spot an enemy swimmer they return to the boat to retrieve special cuffs that they push onto the swimmers’ thigh. Once the special cuffs are on the enemy swimmers’ thigh, they alerted their handler and the handler would pull them in with the string that is attached to the cuffs. They go through training through a program that is run by the Space and Naval Warfare System Pacific. The divers go through exercises with the animals by pretending to be a terrorist. When they are taking a break from training they are kept in large cages. Dolphins and sea lions don’t typically get injured in the line of duty that they are assigned; they are pretty much there to spot the intruders, alert their handlers, and mark the locations. Bees & Rats Bees and rats are next on the list of use in the military. You are probably wondering if you heard that right; or what in the world could they possible do… Rats are possibly the next best thing to discovering underground explosives. Next best thing? Yes, rats are being trained to detect underground explosives and mines in a shorter amount of time; and better yet they can get it done at a higher pace speed indicating a faster time. According to national geographic they state that rats are trained by walking on a leash that is “attached to a bar that moves forward into a suspected field.” Once they’ve smelled the explosive they scratch and/or bite at the location; the nice thing about this is because the rat weighs so little they don’t trigger the mine. Bees can also be trained to detect explosive materials. They say that training bees is quite simple; what they do is they set up sugar-water feeders with some fragments of explosives around a colony of bees which helps them associate the explosive with their food source in order for the odor to become familiar to them. Once the odor sets in and is familiar to them; they then go out searching for the odor until they have successfully found it. This can be very damaging at times because of the odor we put in the bees’ food has caused a lot of bees to die. There are so many different species of non-human animals that are used in today’s police and military, who provide their services to work with us humans every single day. References Aiello, R. A. (unknown). K9 Care, retrieved from LINK Bienaime, P. B. (2015). The US Navy’s Combat Dolphins are Serious Military Assets, retrieved from LINK English, T. E. (2000). The Quiet Americans: A History of Military Working Dogs, retrieved from LINK Lamothe, D. L. (2015). Elephants, rats and dolphins: Eight ways the U.S. military has used animals, retrieved from LINK McVicker, N. M. (2015). Surprising Facts About Police Dogs, retrieved from LINK Mott, M. M. (2004). Bees, Giant African Rats Used to Sniff Landmines, retrieved from LINK Myers, M. M. (2015). Sea lions, dolphins still fleet’s underwater guardians, retrieved from LINK Walters, J. W. (2012). War Dogs, retrieved from Super Science (Blue ed.) Author BioMariah J. Krzanowski is currently enrolled in her second semester at Minnesota State University Mankato; taking Selected Topics in Sociology Animals and Society as a writing intensive class. She has three companion dogs; a Great Dane, Boxer-Lab, and Bichon Shih Tzu. Mariah has an interest in non-human animals and wants to continue studying them to eventually become a Veterinarian.
Comments are closed.
|
ABOUT
This is a website about nonhuman animals, written by human animals taking a Society and Animals class at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|