Soldier’s Best Friend holds a Veteran Dog Fair on Sept. 21 in Peoria. The event offered free food and free dog vaccines to veterans, their families and their canine companions. (Photo by Nash Darragh/Cronkite News)
PHOENIX – Two Arizona-based organizations, Soldier’s Best Friend and the Arizona Humane Society (AHS), are supporting military families by ensuring both the mental health of veterans and the well-being of their pets and service animals while they serve and beyond.
Project Active Duty is an AHS program launched in response to the 9/11 attacks. Partnered with PetSmart Charities and Credit Union West to provide foster care for the pets of deployed service members from all military branches, the initiative offers peace of mind to those on active duty who know their pets will be waiting for them when they return home.
Each year, the program sees anywhere from five to 10 pets needing support while their owners are deployed. Carrie Hughes, head of the AHS foster program, shared the story of Sabo, a 2-year-old husky who has been part of the program for over two years while his owner serves overseas.
“I think it’s an amazing connection for a volunteer and a foster family to know that they’re helping support someone serving our country,” Hughes said. “It’s such a relief for our service community to know that their pet is safe and that they’ll be able to come home and be reunited when they’re done.”
Initially funded by a grant from PetSmart Charities, Project Active Duty relies on community donations. The long-term goal of the program is to continue supporting service members and their pets.
Meanwhile, Soldier’s Best Friend, in Peoria, is a shelter program that not only rescues dogs in Arizona but also trains them as service or support animals for veterans. The training is geared toward supporting veteran owners living with PTSD. Mik Milem is the executive director of the organization and has been with the nonprofit since it launched in 2011.
“Our mission is to provide U.S. military veterans that are living with either post-traumatic stress disorder or a traumatic brain injury (with) a dog,” Milem said. “Most of those have been rescued from a local shelter here in Arizona. They train together in our program for about a nine-month period until that dog qualifies to be a service dog for that veteran.”
There have been over 400 teams of veterans and dogs to graduate from the program. Not only has Soldier’s Best Friend helped train dogs already owned by vets, the organization has also rescued over 300 dogs from the streets and local shelters. The dogs and owners train together to get full benefits from the program.
“So they work with one of our trainers twice a week for an hour each time, and then they’d have to do training another five days a week for an hour a day with their dog. So there’s 180 hours of training that have to be recorded to be able to graduate,” Milem said, “We have 16 trainers all across the state. So we are a statewide organization. So this is our main campus, here in Peoria, but we’ve got facilities all over Phoenix.”
The organization also puts on events, such as its Veteran Dog Fair on Sept. 21 in Peoria. The event offered free food and free dog vaccines to veterans, their families and their canine companions.
Sharyn Conway is a returner with the program. Conway and her late dog, Bijou, were in the first graduating class in 2011. When Bijou died, Conway then returned with her new dog, Sodality.
“I’ve been involved with Soldier’s Best Friend since they first opened. Bijou was the very first graduating class,” Conway said, “I had severe agoraphobia, severe PTSD, was not functioning, and they helped me use the dog to begin to heal.”
