In honor of the 4th of July, this week’s Follow Friday is dedicated to spreading awareness about animals that are helping wounded warriors. As animal lovers, we all know what a difference our companion animals make in our lives. The organizations below have recognized that benefit and work to help wounded veterans adopt a cat or dog to help them during their struggles. It’s estimated that every 18 hours one veteran will commit suicide. These organizations are working to end that by providing a loving pet that will help veterans through their darkest times. Check out the sites below and read the stories of participants in the program, the positive effect the animal has had in their lives is nothing short of amazing.
Companions for Heroes – This organization matches shelter dogs and cats with military members who suffer from psychology problems as a result of a deployment(s). This is a win-win; a homeless animal, at risk for being put to sleep gets a home and the veteran gets a companion animal to help them through their care.
Pet for Vets – This is another organization matching shelter dogs with veterans suffering from a myriad of psychology problems after a deployment.
Soldier’s Best Friend – This organization provides professional service dogs with veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injuries. The trained therapy dogs are provided cost-free to the veterans.
Pets for Patriots – This organization goes beyond the adoption of a dog or cat for a veteran, they’ve partnered with veterinarians across the county to provide a 10% discount for those in the program. They also provide a $150 gift card to PETCO, PetSmart or Tractor Supply upon adoption and provide member-only discounts to pet items from their sponsors.
Photo courtesy of Bad Apple Photography
I haven’t personally worked with any of the above mentioned organizations and thus can make no guarantees. Please do your due-diligence as you would before working with or donating to any organization.
Great information. Thank you.
Thanks for checking it out!
Those sound like great organizations. Good idea to help vets. 🙂
Thanks! We love those organizations because they help vets plus homeless animals! Everybody wins!
Lots of great organization. Dogs are miracles in helping people. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
Exactly, it’s amazing what a dogs love can do in someone’s life!
Great post and very appropriate for the holiday. I have a Twitter follower, think the name is Ken Wahl, he is very well known for his work with veterans and service dogs. Love Dolly
Thanks, Dolly.
These are all great groups and deserve all the press they can get…Nice job today Peppino!
Thank you!!
Hi Pippy, my first time here. Am visiting from Twitter (I’m @ShinerDoggy’s mom). Great list of organizations there. Those statistics are quite sad, but glad that there are people and pets out there trying to make things better for these wonderful veterans.
Thank you for checking out my blog. Yes, the stats are very sad. It’s amazing what a companion dog or cat can do in the vets lives.