Thaindian News

Nov 16 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Target was one of three dogs which were befriended by American soldiers in the war ravaged country of Afghanistan. Although she lived through the bombings, survived battle scars an injuries, she was mistakenly euthanized at an animal shelter in Arizona.

Although it is being called an accident, the employee responsible for putting Target down has been placed on administrative leave from the Pinal County Animal Care And Control Center in Arizona. The director of the shelter, Ruth Stalter explained, “When it comes to euthanizing an animal, there are some clear-cut procedures to follow. Based on my preliminary investigation, our employee did not follow those procedures,” according to the Daily Mail.

Target indeed lived a full life. When she and two other “mutt” dogs, Rufus and Sasha befriended the US soldiers, they showed their gratitude for the food and attention they were given by watching over the soldiers. Target once managed to scare off a suicide bomber and alert the soldiers by barking and biting at the terrorist who was wearing twenty-five pounds of explosives.

The bomber detonated outside due to the attack by the dogs. It is believed that the lives of fifty soldiers were saved that day. Sasha was killed in the blast, but Rufus and Target survived and were treated by the medics just as though they were soldiers as well. Rufus went to live with a soldier in Georgia, and Target was claimed by Sgt. Terry Young.

Several groups came together to help Sgt Young get Target out of Afghanistan when his tour was up. The animal was brought to the San Tan Valley in Arizona in August. Sgt. Terry Young and Target appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show in September and featured as one of the show’s “Amazing Animals”.

When Target escaped from Sgt Young’s back yard last week, the soldier put up notices and called local television stations which did reports on the missing canine. A neighbor found Target wandering around the neighborhood, and called the animal shelter. When Sgt Young saw a picture of Target on the shelter’s website on Friday night, he thought the place was closed until Monday morning.

Sadly, when he went to pick Target up from the shelter in Casa Grande on Monday, she had been put to sleep. May this beautiful and loyal war hero truly rest in peace.