During National Military Appreciation Month, the American Humane Organization encourages Palm Beach County residents to support the service dogs for veterans’ program. May is National Military Appreciation Month. It is a time when Americans everywhere pay tribute to the resolute service members who take a sacred oath to protect and serve our country. However, for veterans, the return home from war can be yet another daunting battle as they nurse wounds that might not be visible on the surface. Tragically, 184 veterans a day are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, and twenty take their own lives as a result.
South Florida nonprofit, American Humane aims to help these heroes with its Pups4Patriots program, which finds dogs in need of forever homes and trains them to become service dogs for veterans across the country at absolutely no cost to the veterans themselves. American Humane is the country’s first national humane organization, founded in 1877. For more information, please visit americanhumane.org.
Service dogs can transform the lives of these veterans and give them a renewed sense of purpose. Research shows that specially trained service dogs can reduce stress and anxiety levels in veterans while easing reintegration into social settings and restoring confidence to those managing traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress.
Service dogs are an invaluable asset to veterans who have sustained trauma, but there are significant obstacles to receiving one. Professionally training a dog so they perform their needed tasks and remain calm and focused in public areas can be both expensive and time-consuming, with costs that can skyrocket upwards of $30,000. And even when the cost is not an obstacle, wait times can still be prohibitively long.
Through the Pups4Patriots program, American Humane provides no-cost service dogs to veterans in both a timely and efficient manner. The Pups4Patriots program is made possible through donor support. For more information about the Pups4Patriots program watch youtu.be/t1vTwfRcT2I.
