Heroes Final Home

From WSMV:

"Abandoned pet cemetery now a final home for four-legged heroes"

It’s a place to give our life-saving heroes on four legs the respect and honor they deserve. “Once they're trained, they will save your life. That's their main function – to save lives,” Phil Weitlauf said. Sometimes, that means giving their own life to save another. Weitlauf, a veteran himself, wants to make sure the dogs that serve alongside first responders and military are honored for their service. “It makes my heart burst because I love dogs. I love K9s, especially the working dogs,” he said. Weitlauf and a group of dedicated volunteers started a mission to make an abandoned pet cemetery a final home for the heroes on four legs. “I got with my military buddies, K9 supporters and we started cleaning it up,” Weitlauf said. It took them two years to turn it into a peaceful, patriotic place. “We buried our first service dog, K9 Buddy, and that started it,” he said. WNEM was there when War Dog Memorial volunteers and hundreds from the community gathered to honor K9 Faith. Her handler, Lt. Tonya Perry with Troy Fire Department, even taught Faith how to stop, drop and roll. “We estimate that in her eight-year career with the Troy Fire Department she educated over 50,000 people – children, adults, senior citizens, special needs groups,” Perry said. In the five years since the memorial has been open, K9 Faith is the 20th dog that Weitlauf and his group have laid to rest. It is of no cost to the dog's handler -- from the headstone, to the landscaping, to the ceremonial burial. They run solely on donations, volunteers and lots of passion. “When we started this, I never dreamed it would turn into what it did,” Weitlauf said. Weitlauf said what he is most proud of is a wall honoring the 4,000 war dogs that served in Vietnam. He set out on the daunting task of finding the names and tattoo numbers of every one of them, and he said two Vietnam veterans were the ones that donated thousands to make the memorial come to life. “We had over 40 Vietnam dog handlers that came from all over the U.S. to be here,” Weitlauf said. Back then, the Vietnam war dogs were considered "equipment,” so when the war ended hey were left behind. “The handlers had a choice - they could give their dogs to the South Vietnamese Army, which was a problem because the dog was tracked under Vietnamese scent and he wouldn't know north from south. Their other choice was to euthanize many of them, about 98 percent, that's exactly what they did,” Weitlauf said. Now, like all the other K9 heroes, they will be remembered for their sacrifice and service. “They're more than just a dog of somebody that just chains them up and leaves them outside. They're your companion, and when you bond with a dog that dog bonds with you for life. It's totally unconditional love,” Weitlauf said.

^ This is such a great idea and one that the Federal Government should help with - along the same lines as the National Cemeteries across the US. ^

https://www.wsmv.com/news/us_world_news/abandoned-pet-cemetery-now-a-final-home-for-four-legged/article_8a22c453-cdb1-5c4d-96d1-9027cfdb0196.html