I had a great conversation yesterday with Beth Zimmerman, the founder, Executive Director, and CEO of Pets for Patriots.

You definitely need to read their site and blog for the details of how they’re going to make this happen – it’s a good plan – but here’s their stated mission:

“Pets for Patriots’ vision is to end animal homelessness by supporting the permanent placement of adult dogs and cats with every available, able, and willing military family in the U.S.”

Great concept in general, but what really caught my eye was Beth’s post (“Pets for Patriots launches new program with the U.S. Army“) a few days ago about visiting the Army Wounded Warrior (AW2) office recently here at Ft Carson, and specifically this sentence:

“Wounded soldiers who don’t qualify for a service animal – but would benefit from a new pet friend – will be referred to us.”

Exactly!  This is another outstanding example of a key concept I wrote about last November after reading about the Washington DC Humane Society’s Dog Tags program where troops rehabbing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center train dogs in basic obedience so they have a greater chance of being adopted. Please go read that post in its entirety (it’s not long) – everything I said there is still true today (in fact, even more so) and I’d just have to repost the whole thing here: “Every Veteran With A Disability Doesn’t Need A Service Dog, And This Is A Great Alternative“

No question in my mind that dogs have an important role to play with helping our wounded warriors recover, just not necessarily SERVICE dogs, something so many seem to assume.

We absolutely have to look at the ENTIRE range of options when we’re talking about dogs helping veterans, especially where post-traumatic stress is involved. Things like veterans training dogs in shelters so they have a better chance to be adopted, or adopting great pets, or working with a therapist who has a Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog, or raising dogs that will eventually be service dogs for someone else (with the caveat that those dogs receive advanced training from a professional trainer), and so on.

Let’s be very clear – Beth is coming at things from a different and broader angle than I am, but Pets for Patriots is also a perfect fit for what I’m looking to accomplish and gives me one more very valuable option to offer people. I very much look forward to working with her as she expands this program both locally here in Colorado Springs and around the country as well.