Military Working Dog & Law Enforcement Adoption
When the military is done with a working dog, they put the dog through a series of temperament testing. This is to ensure that if the K-9 is adopted out it will be safe with the family it ends up retiring with. This along with history, training and recommendations from its last handler, kennel master and veterinarian determine if the dog will be deemed safe and suitable for adoption.
If the military deem the K-9 suitable it is than offered via Lackland Air Force Base to the general public. This is a FREE service. There are a number of organizations out there that say it costs thousands of dollars to transport and adopt one of these canines. This is FALSE.. The military bring all MWD's back to US Soil unless the dog is terminally ill or it would be inhumane to transport due to terminal injury.
The only cost to the adopter is transportation from Lackland Air Force Base to their new home.
Unfortunately with the demand of people wanting to care for one of these 4-legged heroes and the number of suitable K-9's available, the Air Force periodically take down their adoption site as the waiting list can sometimes top many years. No one has any control over this as it is a Military run Program.
Although Law Enforcement and other agencies don't share in this program, they do have similar protocols for adopting. Currently there is no centralized location to adopt Law Enforcement Canines, but rest assured, Saveavet is working with the lead suppliers of working dogs to put this into motion as we speak.
If the canine is deemed unsuitable for adoption due to liability or other related identifiers, the canine is than slated to be euthanized. This is where we step in.
Take a look at the Saveavet Mission and see how you can get involved.
If you are an IT professional with Coding Experience and interested in volunteering your time to help us build an adoption database, please contact us immediate at info@saveavet.org, subject line IT Volunteer. Thank you for your support and we look forward to hearing from you.
*Some groups try to pass off Private Contractor Dogs as Military Working Dogs. These dogs, although working side-by-side with our soldiers, are not Military Working Dogs. In addition, the contracting firms they work for typically receive upwards of $500-$1500 a day for each dog they have in country. They have the funds to care for their dogs when they are retired but instead try to push this off to civilians. We encourage you to contact your congressional members to required them to care for these canines as they have been over-funded for this via their contract.
*Pets adopted overseas are also sometimes promoted by other organizations as Military Working Dogs. These are strays that soldiers brought into their bases and unofficially "adopted" as their unit dog. Although sad, there are things to consider with these K9's. They carry diseases that do not exist in this country. Even though they are quarantined for a certain amount of time, there is no standard of testing a dog born and raised in war zones for diseases that don't exist in the US. Periodically we are asked to help someone transport one of these K9's from Iraq and Afghanistan back to the US. As a military run organization that has also been in the same situation you are in, we still encourage you to reach out to one of the 10's of 1000's of adoption organizations based here in the United States to adopt one of the many canines already here that are in need of a good home.