Source Reporting Week of 3.30

This week, I was able to use the services of our library’s Interlibrary Loan Service once again (Virginia Tech’s librarians are probably getting tired of me requesting so many different books and articles, particularly those that are rare or out of print!) One such request, which I fully expected to be impossible to find, was an article written by Lieutenant Colonel Richardson (whom I have spoken and written of before, the founder of the British War Dog School) and it is entitled, “Trained Dogs Prove Invaluable in Scouting and Ambulance Work.” What is interesting about this particular article is its early date, supposedly 1912, when Richardson was purportedly first learning of the German army’s work with dogs. I think this source will be a welcome addition to the section of my project entitled, “Dogs as Soldiers” and will add more insight into the history of World War I dogs, in particular, and Richardson’s thoughts on war dogs and their reliability as workers and soldiers on the fighting front.

Another source I discovered this past week is a book entitled, Animals and War: Studies of Europe and North America. This book, published in the UK in 2013, was on display at the Living with Animals conference I attended last weekend in Berea, Kentucky. I have yet to pick it up from the library (it just arrived yesterday) but from perusing through it at the conference, I already know that it has a section entitled, “Canine Soldiers, Mascots, and Stray Dogs in U.S. Wars: Ethical Considerations.” This could potentially be a highly useful chapter for me and my research and perhaps could prove relevant for the section of project that discusses civilian morale on the U.S. home front during World War I.