Honoring the ‘supreme sacrifice’ innumerable animals have made

“We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word

they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act,

the highest virtues of men and citizens.  For love of country they accepted death,

and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.” 

            -- James A. Garfield, May 30, 1868, Arlington National Cemetery  

  

Today is Memorial Day, a day when we remember those who have died in service to our country.  It is a deserved and fitting way to honor the men -- and women -- who died for our freedom.

Over the centuries, incalculable numbers of animals have also “died in service to our country.”  Of course, they did not volunteer; they were drafted to serve.  And die.  They knew no “love of country” and did not knowingly perform that “one supreme act” or “accept death.”  They had no choice.

How do we remember and honor those animals, yanked out of their own lives and forced to serve in people’s wars and campaigns?  Is there a national monument to them, as is the case in other countries?   I don’t know of one.  (Nor do those hypocritical posthumous honors awarded to dead “service animals” even begin to suffice.) 

     

Since 2004, England has had “Animals in War,” a glorious national memorial dedicated to “all the animals that served and died alongside British and Allied forces in wars and campaigns throughout time.”  From glow worms and pigeons to dogs, horses and elephants, the countless millions of animals who died in human warfare are represented by images and sculptures as well as those words, and these, the saddest of all:  “THEY HAD NO CHOICE.”

        

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