Should U.S. Military Working Dogs Be American-Born?

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Paul Bourgeois, 3rd MWD Detachment military working dog handler, and his dog Olaf, 633rd SFS MWD, participate in a ruck march in honor of National K9 Veterans Day at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, March 13, 2020. (Kaylee Dubois/U.S. Air Force)

Military.com: US Military Working Dogs Should Be American-Born, Senator Says

A Democratic lawmaker wants the Pentagon to buy American when it comes to its Military Working Dog program.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut included an amendment in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that would require the U.S. Air Force, which oversees the Pentagon's program, to conduct a business case study on what it would take to purchase dogs from U.S. breeders instead of European sources.

"I was surprised to learn from the Air Force that the vast majority of our working dogs are actually born and bred in Europe, which raises costs and puts us in competition with other countries," Blumenthal said in a statement to Military.com on Wednesday. Bloomberg News was first to report the story.

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WNU Editor: The Air Force budgets roughly $5 million annually to buy about 450 dogs each year. This is why most US military dogs are bought from Europe .... It costs about $5,500 to buy a dog from Europe, according to statistics provided by the Air Force. The service pays about $9,000 per dog in the U.S..

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