War Dog Memorial to start honoring service horses
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Michigan War Dog Memorial Cemetery is expanding its offerings, not only honoring service dogs but also horses that served.
The non-profit organization announced the change in a Facebook post Sunday afternoon.
“They deserve to have a place to be honored for their service and the MWDM will provide that for them,” the post read.
The Michigan War Dog Memorial in South Lyon was launched by Phil Weitlauf in 2012. He told the Detroit Free Press that the project became his passion when he realized that government officials weren’t honoring these service animals.
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“One of the reasons we set up the memorial is because the government won’t take care of the military dogs when they pass away,” Weitlauf said. “We found the state and county won’t take care of their mounted horses when they die either. We should honor them the same way we honor the canines.”
The cemetery now holds the ashes of 90 service dogs from across the country, ranging from military dogs and police K-9s to service dogs. In all, it costs approximately $1,000 to inter an animal, but the organization covers those costs through donations.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the first ceremony for service horses will be held later this fall, honoring three service horses from Wayne County.
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