hero dogs Archives - i Still Love Dogs

RIP Kabang, Hero Dog Who Lost Her Snout Saving 2 Girls’ Lives in 2012

As cousins Dina Bunggal, 11, and Princess Diansing, 3, crossed a street in the Philippines in December 2011, a motorcycle sped toward them. Seemingly out of nowhere, Bunggal’s Shepherd mix, Kabang, jumped in front of the bike, saving the girls’ lives.

Kabang also survived her heroic act, but suffered a gruesome injury in the process: Her snout was torn off when the motorcycle struck her head-on. Remarkably, she was able to adjust — for example, she figured out how to eat by using her paws to scoop food into her mouth.

To prevent Kabang from developing a life-threatening infection, she needed reconstructive surgery so her wounds would close, and there weren’t any vets in the area with the expertise to perform such a complicated procedure.

Fortunately, veterinary surgeons Boaz Arzi and Frank Verstraete of the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis, offered to reconstruct Kabang’s upper jaw using state-of-the-art equipment. Philippine Airlines donated round-trip airfare for Kabang to be flown to Northern California. The cost of her surgery, which was over $20,000, was mostly covered by donations from animal lovers around the world.

Treating Heartworm, Cancer and a Missing Snout

But before reconstruction surgery could begin, UC Davis veterinarians discovered two more serious problems: Kabang had heartworm disease as well as a malignant vaginal tumor that needed to be removed. Fortunately, both were successfully treated. A few months later Kabang was free of both heartworm and cancer, and finally ready for surgery.

The first surgery repaired her dental work. The second one, which took five hours, closed the wound on her face using skin flaps brought forward from the top and sides of her head. Her nasal openings were also reconstructed and stents were placed inside them to form nostrils.

In 2013, seven months after she’d arrived at UC Davis, Kabang was ready to return to her home in the Philippines. In the meantime, she received several awards honoring her heroism, including the Animal Hero award from the American Red Cross.

Living Happily Ever After

I wrote several stories about Kabang for i Love Dogs, and have wondered in the years since then about whatever happened to the hero dog. Kabang spent the next nine years enjoying a healthy life. When her owner, Rudy Benggal, died in 2015, she was taken in by her longtime veterinarian, Dr. Anton Lim, who had accompanied her to UC Davis in 2012 and cared for her during her stay there.

On May 17, Lim announced that the 13-year-old hero dog had died peacefully in her sleep. “I last played with her at 4 p.m. and was supposed to feed her again her dinner,” Lim told the Inquirer, adding that Kabang had never lost her voracious appetite. “I found her motionless with no external sign or prior sickness,” he said.

Kabang’s permanent resting place will be beside a statue being erected in her honor in Zamboanga City.

“Rest in peace, sweetheart,” the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine wrote on its Facebook page Monday.

Photo: Care for Kabang/Facebook

Why Hero Military Dog Conan Probably Won’t Receive a Purple Heart

Ever since he helped take down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi in October, hero dog Conan has received plenty of well-deserved accolades.

Conan is a Belgian Malinois who has served over 50 missions with the U.S. military’s Delta Force. He was injured during the Oct. 27 raid in Syria when he stepped on live electrical wires while chasing al-Bagdadi into a tunnel. Fortunately, the hero dog recovered from his wounds.

In a Photoshopped tweet three days after the raid, Donald Trump is seen putting ribbon with a paw-print medal around Conan’s neck.

AMERICAN HERO! pic.twitter.com/XCCa2sGfsZ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2019

There was some confusion over whether Conan was male or female, but apparently he’s a male.

?UPDATE: Two defense officials have now contacted us to say Conan is *for sure they say* a BOY. One official said they triple checked.
I guess the important thing here is that Conan, boy or girl, is a good dog who did excellent work with the US military.
The end. https://t.co/bSQJifnMxx
— Elizabeth McLaughlin (@Elizabeth_McLau) November 26, 2019

Fun fact: Conan wasn’t named after Conan the Barbarian, but Conan O’Brien the Comedian.

That dog is clearly the better “Conan” — I wish her a speedy recovery! https://t.co/7BVIaybve6
— Conan O’Brien (@ConanOBrien) October 29, 2019

During Conan’s visit to the White House last week, Trump called him a “tough cookie” at a news conference. “The dog is incredible,” Trump said. “We spent some good time with it. So brilliant, so smart.” Trump presented Conan with a special medal designed by U.S. Special Operations — but not a Purple Heart.

Despite Conan’s heroism, it is unlikely that he will receive a Purple Heart, the U.S. military’s highest honor. This award is given to members of the military who “are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action,” according to the Military Order of the Purple Heart website.

Since World War II, the U.S. military has only awarded the Purple Heart to two-legged heroes.

“The use of military decorations is limited to human personnel who distinguish themselves in service to the nation,” Defense Department spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said in 2010, according to the American Kennel Club (AKC).

Many veterans think dogs should also be awarded this honor for their service.

“Do I believe Conan should receive a Purple Heart for actions on target?” former Army Ranger and Purple Heart recipient Michael Bollinger, a former Army Ranger, told the New York Post. “Absolutely. They’re out there with us every step of the way.”

For over a decade, Ron Aiello, founder of the United States War Dog Association, has been urging the Department of Defense to establish an official medal for military dogs who distinguish themselves in service to the U.S.

“They say they can’t do that,” he told the AKC. “We utilize these dogs and they are recognized as a large asset to our military. But we can’t honor them.”

The last military dog to officially be honored with a Purple Heart was Chips, the most decorated dog of World War II.

“For ‘singlehandedly’ wiping out a machine-gun nest in Italy, a dog named Chips was awarded the D.S.C., the Silver Star and the Purple Heart,” TIME reported in February 1944.

All the press Chips was getting caught the attention of the commander of the Order of the Purple Heart, according to Military.com. The commander complained to President Roosevelt and the War Department that giving the Purple Heart to a dog demeaned all the men who had received one.

Chips was allowed to keep his medals, but the Army’s adjutant general, Major General James A. Ulio, ruled that no other dogs would receive the Purple Heart, TIME reported.

The most decorated dog in U.S. military history was Purple Heart recipient “Sergeant” Stubby, who saved hundreds of lives during World War I by sniffing out mustard gas and barking to alert the troops when he heard artillery fire.

More recently, a Belgian Malinois named Cairo helped his fellow Navy SEALs take down Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid. Cairo did not receive a Purple Heart for this heroic feat, and that’s a shame.

Photo: Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead

Dog Detects Diabetic Girl’s Blood Sugar Drop from 5 Miles Away

A diabetes detection dog with the appropriate name of Hero can sense when the blood sugar level of 4-year-old Sadie is dangerously low or high.

If it’s too low, the Labrador Retriever whines, and nudges or paws Sadie’s parents’ left hands. If it’s too high, he does the same to their right hands.

One day last December, Hero started pawing the left hand of Sadie’s mom, Michelle. But at the time, Sadie, who has Type 1 diabetes and Down syndrome, was attending a special-needs class at an elementary school five miles away from their home in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

“He’s normally a very quiet dog,” Michelle told KUTV. “Whining is not in his protocol. But he just started whining and he would not stop.”

Michelle called the school and was told Sadie was fine. But within half an hour, the girl’s blood sugar level plummeted.

“The lows are more dangerous immediately,” Michelle told KUTV. “(With) lows, she could go into a diabetic coma right away, and she could die, if we kept her low too long.”

Caroline Knadler, the school principal, told KUTV Hero’s long-distance detection blew her mind. Knadler, who also has Type 1 diabetes, said Hero once detected her own blood sugar level drop during a parent-teacher meeting.

KC Owens, owner of Tattle Tale Scent Dogs in Utah, where dogs like Hero are trained to be diabetic alert dogs, told KUTV these dogs can use their hundreds of millions of scent receptors to pick up odors from a mile or two away. But five miles?

It might not have been Hero’s amazing sense of smell that let him know something was wrong with Sadie.

“How do dogs know when their owners are coming home?” Owens asked. “There’s another piece of it that I call, ‘God only knows.'”

Michelle told KUTV she thought it was something similar to a mother’s intuition. “These dogs have abilities and senses beyond our understanding,” she said.

On the Sadie’s Hero Facebook page, Michelle wrote that she didn’t want to give the impression that all diabetic alert dogs can detect from miles away as Hero seemed to do.

“They don’t,” she wrote, adding that many of Owens’ teams “have experienced this too many times to be coincidence, but it doesn’t happen with every low or with every dog. So while we can’t and won’t even try to explain how this happens, we feel blessed. Even without the long-distance alerts, he is amazing.”

Sadie’s dad told KUTV, “I’ve always called Sadie our little angel, and I think Hero was a little angel sent into our lives to watch over her.”

Photo via Facebook

Nominate Your Own ‘Superdog’ for a Hero Dog Award

Did your working or non-working pooch do something extraordinarily good this past year? Nominations are now being accepted for the 2016 American Humane Association (AHA) Hero Dog Awards.

The purpose of these awards, sponsored by the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation, is to “celebrate the powerful, age-old bond between dogs and people – and give recognition to courageous acts of heroism performed by our four-legged best friends,” according to the official website.

“Every year, hundreds of dogs vie for the coveted title of ‘American Hero Dog’ at the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards,” said Dr. Robin Ganzert, president and CEO of AHA. “Dogs do so many extraordinary things to improve and even save our lives, and this contest is our way of saluting our best friends.”

Through March 2, you can nominate your hero dog in one of the following eight categories:

Emerging Hero Dogs (ordinary dogs who do extraordinary things)
Law Enforcement Dogs
Arson Dogs
Service Dogs
Therapy Dogs
Military Dogs
Search-and-Rescue Dogs
Guide and Hearing Dogs

Beginning March 16, you can vote online for your favorite in each category. The winner of each category will receive $2,500 for their designated charity partner, a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating the role of working dogs.

The category winners will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the 6th Annual Hero Dogs Award ceremony, to be held Sept. 10 at the Beverly Hilton. The ceremony will be televised on the Hallmark Channel in the fall.

During the awards ceremony, one of the category winners will receive the prestigious American Hero Dog of the Year honor, and an additional $5,000 for their charity partner.

The 2015 recipient was Emerging Hero Dogs category winner Harley, a 15-year-old Chihuahua who spent the first 10 years of his life living in a cage in a filthy puppy mill. Harley suffered several physical ailments, including the loss of an eye when his cage was power-washed while he was still inside it. He was the inspiration for the Harley to the Rescue campaign, which raises funds to rescue and provide medical care for more other puppy-mill dogs.

According to AHA, the Hero Dog Awards show is viewed by more than 1 billion people around the world each year. It has featured celebrity participants including Betty White, Martin Short and Fred Willard.

Founded in 1877, AHA was the first national humane organization in the U.S., and is the only one dedicated to protecting both children and animals.

Photo via Facebook

3-Legged Senior Pit Bull Saves Couple from Armed Robber

As Bob Stenzel and Darcy Cherry sat at a table in their Janesville, Wisc., home at dinnertime last week, a man with a gun entered their house through an unlocked door.

“He had his gun drawn on us and demanded us to the ground, and repeatedly asked us, ‘Where’s the safe?’ and ‘Where is the money?'” Stenzel told KTRK.

“I was just praying and praying and praying for us all to be safe,” Cherry added.

Levi, their 15-year-old, three-legged Pit Bull, began to growl and bark at the intruder. The man ran off, but not before shooting at Levi’s head. Fortunately, the bullet only grazed the top of Levi’s head and lodged in his shoulder.

After being treated for his wounds, Levi the hero dog is doing well and expected to make a full recovery.

“It’s a feeling you can’t really express in words,” Stenzel told KTRK. “I mean, thank God he was here.”

Levi is “as loving as a dog can get,” according to GazetteXtra reporter Frank Schultz.

“Levi got up on his three legs and hobbled over to nuzzle the legs of a Gazette photographer and reporter as they entered his house,” Schultz wrote Jan. 23. “Not bad for a dog who was shot in the head four days earlier.”

This was actually the second time Levi was a hero. On a mountain hike with Cherry and her son in 2014, Levi took a fall off a steep trail. One of his legs was shattered and had to be amputated. Cherry told KTRK she believes Levi protected her son, who was walking right behind the dog, from falling first.

Stenzel and Cherry rescued Levi when he was a puppy and had been abandoned in an apartment building.

“He is amazing. He bounces back so fast,” Cherry told Channel 3000. “I wish I could have his strength and his mobility to just come back and be so loving natured.”

According to the Janesville Police Department, the armed robber was white, 5’7 to 5’8 tall with a slender build, and between 20 to 30 years old. Anyone with information is asked to call the police department at 608-755-3100 or Janesville Crime Stoppers at 608-756-3636.

Photo: YouTube