Express View on service dogs: Happy retirement
In an emotional ceremony on Wednesday, CISF personnel bid farewell to three of their canine comrades in the national capital. Sony, Rocky and Romeo of the Delhi Metro unit have hung up their leashes after nearly a decade of dedicated service. Over the course of an eventful career, the three explosive-detecting dogs — a female German Shepherd, a male Golden Retriever and a male Cocker Spaniel — helped sniff out and identify several unclaimed or unattended items or pieces of baggage and played an invaluable role in securing the safe passage of lakhs of commuters everyday.
While the CISF has already procured their sprightly young replacements, Sony, Rocky and Romeo have been sent to a local NGO in the hope of finding them permanent homes. This is a welcome change from the days when dogs in military, paramilitary and police service would be euthanised after being put out to pasture. This was common practice around the world — partly, it was argued, because dogs that have served in high-risk defence and security jobs would have a hard time adjusting to civilian life, being too aggressive for most ordinary families.
In India, most of the retired canines are now put up for adoption — often ending up being taken in by the handlers with whom they spent years building a bond, but frequently also finding new homes with civilian families. In 2021, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) showed another way forward: The force started a programme to give retired canines a second chance as “therapy dogs”, with dogs being trained at the ITBP National Training Centre for Dogs and Animals to assist in the recuperation of personnel undergoing medical treatment as well as children with special needs. Humane approaches like this can ensure that the life of a service dog, with years spent in rescuing and protecting, doesn’t have to end with retirement.