Dog Earns Special Treat: British Award for Bravery

War has long made heroes of women and men. But animals have also shown gallantry in battle stretching back centuries, including dogs, bears, cats, a duck and even a goat called Sergeant Bill.

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In World War I, Sergeant Bill, who hailed from Saskatchewan and was called Billy by his comrades, was credited with helping to save three Canadian soldiers by butting them into a mud-filled trench just seconds before a shell exploded.

During his military career, Bill was also arrested after chewing army property and suffered from trench foot. After the war he returned home to Canada and, following his death, was stuffed and put on display at the Broadview Historical Museum in Saskatchewan.

Decades later, an American carrier pigeoncalled G.I. Joe saved as many as a thousand lives during World War II by flying 20 miles in 20 minutes with a message warning Allied forces not to bomb an Italian village that had been retaken by the British.

Now, in the latest example of animal valor, a Belgian Malinois dog — a sort of golden German shepherd — that was badly injured by shrapnel in Afghanistan has been awarded the Dickin Medal, Britain’s highest award for animal bravery, for helping to sniff out Taliban militants and their booby traps during a mission by Afghan and British Special Forcesin Afghanistan in 2012.

The Dickin Medal has been awarded 69 times since it was established in 1943. Its recipients include 32 pigeons — G.I. Joe among them — 32 dogs, four horses and one cat. (The cat, Simon, helped protect food supplies from a rat infestation aboard a naval vessel in 1949.)

A British newsreel report from 1946 about G.I. Joe’s Dickin Medal.CreditVideo by British PathéThe People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, the veterinary charity behind the award, said on Friday that the dog, Mali, was being recognized for saving lives during a treacherous assignment when British and Afghan forces were deployed to secure a building in Kabul where armed insurgents were hiding.

The charity said that Mali had braved gunfire to search for explosives, and had also played a pivotal role by helping to sniff out enemy militants. He “indicated the presence of insurgents numerous times, giving the assault force vital milliseconds to engage the enemy in close quarter combat,” it said in a statement.