For millennia animals, without their own choice, have been part of armed conflicts not only as victims, but also as active participants in war
“They had no choice.” These few words have been found by the people to write on the marble of the monument with which Britain has honored the animals killed during the great wars in Europe. It is estimated that the animals that fell during conflicts in the two world wars exceed 20 million. Most of them horses, donkeys, mules, dogs and pigeons, while the number of animals that died from hunger and hardship will remain unknown forever.
Animals have been and still are part of wars and armed conflicts throughout human history. For millennia animals, without their own choice, have been part of armed conflicts not only as victims, but also as active participants in war. A little-known story is the suicide dogs used by the US military during World War II. Dogs trained to run towards enemy tanks while carrying bombs, which the soldiers detonated at the right moment.
As the use of animals in wars is – except in rare and special cases – a thing of the past and animals no longer participate in them, it is clear that non-human casualties are simply counted as collateral casualties, not counted in the real casualties of human armed conflicts. It is a fact that the pain of non-human animals during wars is often overlooked and considered insignificant in the face of human losses and human suffering. The truth, however, is that war causes death and suffering to animals, sometimes on an even greater scale than to humans.
African wars and wildlife
A study published in the journal Nature that analyzed data from 1946 to the present day to trace the effects of small- and large-scale conflicts on Africa’s mammal populations showed that wars have caused a huge decline in the continent’s large herbivore populations, such as elephants, rhinos and hippos. The study included wild animals mortally wounded during shelling and firefights, animals hunted and killed to feed troops, those captured and sold to finance war funds, and animals killed as environmental hit of each enemy.
Zoos
After the invasion of the American troops in 2003 in Baghdad, the forces of the regime released from the zoo of the Iraqi capital as well as from private homes large carnivorous animals, such as lions, panthers and jaguars. This move was intended to cause panic in the streets of the city, in a desperate attempt to block the advance of the Americans. The result was that all the animals were killed, as they too were frightened and found themselves in the middle of the conflicts. Captive zoo animals are a distinct category of war victims, as during these periods animals may be killed, eaten, injured, starved, stolen and sold, abused, and even released into conflict zones. as in the case of Baghdad.
From war to war
During the Vietnam War the US military made extensive use of the herbicide Agent Orange to eliminate the forest cover of the Viet Cong. Except this poison destroyed the habitats of tigers, Asian elephants, leopards and many other species, while at least 40,000 animals were killed by unexploded land mines twenty years after the war. Mozambique’s civil war (1977-1992) resulted in a 90% decline in elephant and giraffe populations. The war between Iran and Iraq during the 1980s tragically resulted in the extinction or near-extinction of the two countries’ wild animals, such as wild goats, wolves, otters, pelicans, hyenas and river dolphins. Sudan’s long civil war has reduced the country’s elephant population from 100,000 in 1983 to just 5,000 in 2005. In Afghanistan alone, landmines laid by the occasionally warring camps have killed half of the country’s total animal population. During the two-year Gulf War, an estimated 790,000 sheep, 12,500 cows and 2,500 horses were killed in Kuwait. In the same period 85% of the animals at the Kuwait International Zoo starved to death, while the infamous oil spill in the Persian Gulf by Iraqi troops caused the death of up to 230,000 aquatic animals and birds.
Losses in Ukraine
According to data so far from Ukraine’s Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food, the official estimated number of animals killed since Russia’s invasion began on February 24 is 42,000 sheep, 92,000 cattle, 258,000 pigs, more than 5.7 million poultry. In reality, these numbers are surely much higher, as the loss to the country’s wildlife and companion animals, which are often abandoned and lost in the chaos of war, especially when their owners are displaced or become refugees, is not yet accounted for. Because the photos of refugees fleeing with a dog in their arms may be moving, but they do not capture the harsh reality of abandonment hidden behind the smoke of the bombings.
