By VERENA DOBNIK
Associated Press
Posted: 04/15/2012
01:47:58 PM PDT
NEW YORK—Sen. Charles
Schumer wants to speed up adoptions for retired combat dogs after helping an
ex-Marine corporal reunite with the German Shepherd wounded with her in Iraq.
Schumer
held a celebration Sunday in his Manhattan office for "Sergeant Rex"
and former Cpl. Megan Leavey, who spent years fighting for permission to take
the aging dog home.
"They
performed the most dangerous job in the military," the New York Democrat
said of Leavey's mission in Iraq, which entailed using the highly-trained dog
to identify roadside explosives.
The
pair saved "countless" lives, Schumer said.
Both
were badly injured on a patrol in 2006. With 11-year-old Rex in declining health,
the senator said time was crucial.
On
Sunday, while Rex barked happily at news cameras, Schumer presented the
28-year-old ex-Marine with more than 21,000 signatures from people who had
urged military officials to release the dog to Leavey.
After
she retired in 2007 with a Purple Heart, Rex kept working.
She'd
been trying to adopt the dog but was stymied by bureaucracy until she asked
Schumer to intervene.
The
senator supports a bill that would speed up retired military dog adoptions,
introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
The
legislation would reclassify dogs from "equipment" to "canine
members of the armed forces," while allowing the military to accept travel
benefits and coordinate veterinary care with an outside not-for-profit agency.
The bill would also
ensure that "excessed" dogs cannot be abandoned in a war zone as
equipment, with no way home, Schumer said.
Since
2000, it has been illegal for the military to euthanize any working dog that is
considered adoptable.
There
are currently 2,700 dogs on active duty in the U.S. military.
Of
the 444 that left in 2011, 52 were transferred to other government or law
enforcement agencies and 276 were privately adopted, according to an Air Force
report. The other 116 died while on active duty, some of natural causes and
others euthanized for debilitating illness or because they were too dangerous
for adoption.
Rex
was retired when he turned 10 and was deemed unable to work.
He
arrived Tuesday from Camp Pendleton, the Marine base in California, and now
romps through Leavey's backyard in Rockland County, north of New York City.
After
not seeing Rex for four years, Leavey was afraid he wouldn't remember her.
"But it was like I'd seen him yesterday," she said. "The bond
that we have is incredible."
In
the senator's office, Rex rolled onto his back, paws in the air, chomping on a
stuffed toy.
Schumer
gave him some bipartisan dog biscuits—one bag with elephants, the other
donkeys, because the Marine pair "saved us all, Republicans and Democrats,
and we thought Rex would be happy munching on both," the senator joked.
The
combat dog also got a rubber yellow cab, "so he won't have to chase New
York taxis!"
Handler
and dog have both healed and Leavey now works for a New York private security
firm, handling dogs.