{"id":10501,"date":"2012-05-04T20:34:15","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T18:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/05\/stress-of-war-prompts-soldiers-to-take-afghan-dogs-home\/"},"modified":"2012-05-04T20:34:15","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T18:34:15","slug":"stress-of-war-prompts-soldiers-to-take-afghan-dogs-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/stress-of-war-prompts-soldiers-to-take-afghan-dogs-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Stress of war prompts soldiers to take Afghan dogs home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Amie Ferris-Rotman<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">KABUL<\/span> May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Spot made the clandestine journey<br \/>\nfrom the Afghan Taliban stronghold of Helmand to the capital<br \/>\nKabul, where he is undergoing medical treatment before moving to<br \/>\nthe United States to live with the family of the Marine who<br \/>\nrescued him.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>His ears clipped and tail severed from his days as a fighting<br \/>\ndog, the surprisingly docile ginger and white mutt is one of<br \/>\nhundreds being adopted in increasing numbers by foreign<br \/>\nsoldiers, who pay vast sums to take their new pets home.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Dogs have been proven to help post-traumatic stress and the<br \/>\nsoldiers who adopt them are addressing this,&#8221; said Pen Farthing,<br \/>\nfounder of British charity Nowzad, an animal shelter on the<br \/>\noutskirts of Kabul.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A former Royal Marine, Farthing adopted his dog Nowzad,<br \/>\nnamed after a Helmand district, during his tour there in 2006.<br \/>\nHe then set up the charity, where dogs and some cats are<br \/>\nneutered and vaccinated against rabies before their journeys<br \/>\nabroad.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Nowzad has given homes to over 330 dogs since it was<br \/>\nfounded, mostly to soldiers from the U.S. and Britain, but also<br \/>\nfrom South Africa, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It costs around $3,000 to get a dog from Afghanistan to its<br \/>\nnew home, and Nowzad relies solely on much-needed donations. It<br \/>\nis now trying to raise $250,000 for a new plot of land.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The dogs&#8217; birthplaces in some way reflect the thrust of the<br \/>\nNATO-led war against Taliban insurgents, which has experienced<br \/>\nsome of its toughest fighting in the militants&#8217; southern<br \/>\nbastions.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re seeing more soldier rescues than ever before. When<br \/>\nyou&#8217;re being shot at by the Taliban every day, dogs give you<br \/>\nthat little bit of normality,&#8221; Farthing said by a row of outdoor<br \/>\npens holding black and yellow puppies.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Amie Ferris-Rotman KABUL May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}