Leave No Pet Behind: Returning U.S. Soldiers, Diplomats Work to Bring Home Furry Friends

livemint.com:

When U.S. ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey was huddled in Khartoum while dodging bullets and airstrikes, there was one question that he hadn’t expected: How much did the embassy staff’s cats and dogs weigh? Navy SEALs, who were dispatched to save diplomatic personnel from the clashes that had erupted between feuding Sudanese generals, had agreed to evacuate pets as part of their diplomatic rescue mission. The only stipulations were that the four-legged passengers fit in carry-on bags and that their weight was counted down to the pound.

“The rule of thumb was basically that it had to fit on your lap. We were very fortunate that we didn’t have any outsized pets at the time," a senior U.S. official said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

The Sudan escape marked a lucky break for the cats and dogs of the U.S. mission in east Africa—and another chapter in the growing history of military and diplomatic pet evacuations. In Vietnam, the U.S.

military used working dogs to sniff out explosives and detect enemy forces hiding in rivers and forests. But when America withdrew in 1975, the dogs were classed as equipment and left behind. The unfitting fate led to the creation of Robby’s Law in 2000, which allows retired dogs to be brought home and adopted if possible.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. and its allies launched wars targeting al Qaeda and other extremist groups across the world.

As new fronts opened in the war on terror, so did efforts to rescue the animals that U.S. military and diplomatic personnel befriended in countries where they were deployed. “If you go to anyone that has served in a war, they’re not open about the horribleness of war but they’ll talk about the dog or cat that they were feeding," said