“RCA” was rescued from a shelter in Alabama and selected to be Alaska’s first hearing assistance dog.
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On November 11, 2008, the Alabama War Dogs Memorial Foundation dedicated a War Dogs Memorial at the U.S.S. Alabama Memorial Battleship Park in Mobile. The memorial depicts an actual Alabama war dog team - Little Joe, a German Shepherd, with his handler Charles Wade Franks, along with other combat patrol riflemen. In Vietnam on February 22, 1970, Little Joe gave his life saving those men.
Above and beyond their place as military dogs, family companions and in traditional service occupations, dogs in Alabama serve in an ever-widening spectrum of therapeutic roles. The physical and emotional benefits to humans that come from relationships with dogs are now recognized and utilized by psychiatric facilities, assisted living centers, hospitals, schools . . . even prisons.
Today, dogs contribute more to the welfare of individuals and society than perhaps any other time in the history of the human-dog bond. Additionally, over the past three decades, increased awareness of the importance of humane care and control of dogs, the enactment and enforcement of leash laws, and dog bite prevention education, have all been instrumental in drastically lowering the number of reported dog-related injuries in Alabama and throughout the nation.
National Canine Research Council