They Did Their Duty - Service of Dogs in WWI By Jack Ginsbury

[@donnamartin4299]

Hi again from England. Super interesting subject. No one asked how the military recruited these dogs. It may be interesting to pass on, that many of the dogs were requisitioned from farmers that were previously working dogs, but it wasn't unheard of that family pets were taken to serve in WWI, and of course, sadly, many never made it home.

[@JackGinsburg-s4u]

My understanding was that dogs were either purchased by the military or voluntarily offered by their owners who saw it as their patriotic duty. Of course, practices may have varried among countries. I would be very interested in seeing any data regarding the requisitioning of dogs during WWI.

[@donnamartin4299]

@@JackGinsburg-s4u Hi Jack. I'm not sure if they kept these kind of records in the UK, or exactly how the process worked. I have done quite a bit of oral history in the countryside here. A lot of people had pets and farm animals taken - most of them never saw them again and didn't know what happened to them. It wasn't seen so much as duty in the case of animals; Horses were purchased but dogs were requisitioned. Hope that's informative. The IWM may have more information 👍