Participants at the unveiling of the memorial to animals at war recognize the sacrifices made by a host of furry and feathered combatants throughout Canadian war history.
The man behind a new national monument in Centretown that honours the sacrifices of animals in war says last Saturday’s unveiling at Confederation Park was a “rewarding” moment that “exceeded all my expectations.”
The monument was dedicated near the National War Memorial just a week before Remembrance Day as a tribute to the horses, dogs, pigeons and all other animals that have served Canada – and often died – during the First and Second World War and other conflicts.
The memorial, placed beside the South African War Memorial in the downtown park at Laurier and Elgin, was unveiled after a three-year-long campaign by the Animals in War Dedication Committee.
“Did you ever hear the expression that the planets of the universe were aligned? Well, they were. (That day) exceeded all my expectations,” says Lloyd Swick, a Second World War veteran who also served in Korea, and who is chiefly responsible for getting the memorial made.
He began the campaign three years ago when he attended a Remembrance Day service where he saw bronze figures depicting horses and soldiers straining to haul the artillery.
“He felt that if those bronze figures (of the soldiers) could express it, they would want the animals to be remembered for the invaluable contribution they made and how they also helped to shape our country,” says Shalindhi Perera, the media relations co-ordinator for the committee.
Swick pitched the idea of the monument for animals at an annual meeting of the National Capital Commission, which later formed the committee to get the memorial built.
NCC spokeswoman Denise LeBlanc says the location of the memorial was carefully chosen to be near a Confederation Park memorial to the South African War because Canada supplied 50,000 horses for mounted troops in that conflict – a war in which Canada won its first battle on foreign land under British command.
The memorial, created by David Clendining, consists of three bronze plaques atop three boulders, with each plaque displaying animals working alongside their human comrades.
Walking into the park, the memorial is difficult to miss. There is a dog wearing a medical kit, overseeing three jagged boulders. In Swick’s words, “the cruelty of war” is seen in two pictures of men, horses and mules straining to pull ammunition and artillery through huge craters of mud and sewage created by constant shelling.
The mud is as deep as the horses’ knees and the bodies of the humans are bent, tense, and strained as they attempt to push the wheels forward. The ammunition pulled by the mules almost matches the size of each mule.
Another plaque, Swick says, shows the “love and bonding between a man and his animal.”
It is a scene that often occurred in wartime – a soldier clutching the head of his injured horse. The soldier is seen kissing it and whispering goodbye.
Swick recalled a story of a Mongolian Mule that was in Korea with the U.S. Marines who served there in the early 1950s alongside Swick and other Canadians.
Over a five-day period of the battle, the mule, named Reckless, carried some five tonnes of ammunition from the base, up a rugged terrain mountain path, to the front lines. On its return trip, Reckless carried wounded soldiers on a gurney attached to its back.
“Here’s the trick – she did this unescorted,” Swick says. “Can you imagine the men they would have to have to carry all that ammunition?”
Reckless was twice wounded and honored with a decoration.
Other honoured animals include Simon the Cat. He suffered severe injuries on the HMS Amethyst when it was shelled off the coast of Korea by Chinese communist forces.
Simon, according to the committee’s website, caught rats that were depleting the crew’s dwindling rations while the ship was held hostage.
Perera says she is touched by stories about canaries used during war to detect noxious gases in mine shafts.
She hopes after attending the Remembrance Day ceremony people will place their poppies on the animal dedication.
“I would love to see poppies left at the Animals in War Dedication, as a reminder to never forget how animals gave all they had to serve their human comrades. They are truly war heroes and now we have a way to remember their contribution,” she says.
Swick says he is grateful for all those who helped him achieve the goal, including Laureen Harper, wife of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Veteran Affairs Canada, the NCC, and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who declared that Animals in War Day will be marked every year in Ottawa on Nov. 3.