Health, Welfare and Performance of Military Working Animals in India: A Weathered Veteran’s Reflection on Hooves, Hounds and Honor

Author: Lt Gen PR Venkatesh, PVSM, SM (Retd), Former Director General, Remount & Veterinary Corps

Introduction: Where Muscle Meets Morale

Military history is full of iron and steel, but it has invariably rested firmly on four legs. From the thunder of cavalry horses across ancient plains to the soft, silent footsteps of military working dogs (MWDs) in modern counter-insurgency operations, military working animals (MWAs) have shaped battles, saved lives, and carried burdens no machine has yet replicated with their mix of instinct, intelligence and industriousness.

In India, where terrains shift from the oxygen-starved Siachen to the heat-soaked deserts of Jaisalmer, MWAs are not just assets, but are force multipliers with heartbeat and soul. As someone who spent over three decades in the RVC, I have seen animals teach soldiers courage, companionship and conscientiousness. After all, no matter your rank, a mule will still refuse to move if he thinks your decision is stupid.

This article reflects on the health, welfare and performance of these remarkable animals in the Indian military, contrasting our systems with those of Western nations, gently spiced with the puns that only years in uniform can unwaffle.

1. The Indian Military Animal Landscape: Diversity with a Capital “D”

While the West primarily relies on dogs and horses, India’s operational demands require more of Noah’s Ark minus the giraffe, like:-

•      Horses for sporting and ceremonial duties along with other select specialised tasks.

•      Mules for mountain logistics despite ATV, Robomules and Drones stepping in.

•   Dogs for detection, tracking, guarding, rescue, assault, patrol and now for specialised medical detection roles.

•     Bactrian camels introduced recently for high altitude logistics and desert patrols (a uniquely Indian necessity).

•      Bovines which supplied milk, integral to uniformed forces till 2017, now optimised.

This broad dependence is not indulgence but operational logic. No Western military keeps mules at the scale Bharat does, simply because they do not operate daily at 16,000–18,000 feet, where a helicopter cannot always land and a vehicle cannot always ply.  As one JCO in Ladakh once quipped, “Sahab, in these heights, even combatants rotationally leave, but our mules never ever”.

2. Health & Veterinary Care: From Tent-Clinics to Telemedicine

India’s Strengths

The Indian Army maintains one of the largest and longest standing military animal healthcare systems in the world. RVC officers operate everything from forward veterinary detachments in CI/CT sectors, fully equipped military veterinary hospitals and specialised equine and canine breeding, rearing, training cum management centres.

Our strength lies in adaptability. Where the West relies on compact, tech-heavy field hospitals, India excels at deployable veterinary care in hostile geography. I recall a colicky mule being treated at 14,000 feet using little more than a warm blanket, liquid paraffin and the determined optimism of a Subedar who kept reassuring the VO saying, “Sir, he will be fine. This one is a veteran of Rezang La.”

(The mule recovered as morale ousts medicine.)

Western Comparison

Western militaries, particularly the U.S., France, Netherlands, and the U.K., have more advanced diagnostic equipment at the front, higher budgets for training and R&D, extensive use of advanced imaging for canine orthopaedics and routine deployment of physiotherapists and canine behaviourists. India is fast catching up and continues to excel in knowledge of tropical diseases, high-altitude physiology and improvisation skills, which no western manual fully covers.

3. Welfare Standards: Compassion in Combat Boots

The concept of animal welfare in the military is not modern but is ancient Indian wisdom. As the ‘Shanti Parva’ of our ‘Mahabharata Itihas’ reminds us, “The earth is supported by the strength of animals.”

Indian Military Welfare Practice

Strict work-rest cycles for equines and canines, no beatings or harsh discipline, doctrine of positive reinforcement, equine stables and canine kennels with standards on ventilation and flooring, scales scientifically balanced, strict monitoring of load-bearing limits for mules, mandatory retirement and pension for horses, mules and dogs, a policy that took years of advocacy.

In many ways, our welfare framework is culturally rooted. Indian soldiers form bonds with their animals that astonish Western observers. A horse and a dog will have a name, personality, and a personal fan club of soldiers. A dog handler will skip a meal but not his dog’s grooming. I once saw a handler in Nagaland place his jacket over his sniffer dog, declaring: “Sir, hum to aadat se majboor hain, woh jawan hai aur main uska sahayak.” (“Sir, I’m helpless by habit, he’s the soldier, I’m merely his assistant.”).

How the West Does It

Western countries have highly formalised welfare audits like behavioural monitoring systems, dedicated canine psychologists and dog barracks with underfloor heating, but the Indian advantage lies in the human-animal bond, which many Western militaries now actively try to replicate.

4. Training Philosophies: Where Drill Meets Tail-Wagging

Indian Systems

Training in India is rugged, realistic and mission-specific, where our dogs learn to detect IEDs and mines in crowded marketplaces, track in forests and deserts, guard remote posts, operate in extreme temperature and navigate chaotic, noisy environments of disasters and avalanches, detect ambushes, are the first responders during assault and have made forays into the medical detection domain as Covid detection dogs. Mules learn terrain navigation better than GPS while the Horses combine ceremonial excellence with robust fitness. Training in the Indian milieu is repetitive, disciplined and often peppered with humour. A drill instructor once exasperatedly shouted at a dithering young dog: “Beta, agar tumhe doubt hai, toh poochh lo, bhonk kar mat batao!” (“My son, if you have doubts, ask me, don’t bark them out!”)

Western Methods

India too like the west have now standardised emerging technologies like marker and clicker training, positive reinforcements, behaviour modification with science models, classical and operant conditioning, cues and capturing, extensive simulation environments, shorter more intensive training cycles and genetic screening for behavioural traits. While these methods are scientifically sound, they sometimes lack the environmental complexity of Indian deployment zones.

5. Performance in Operations: Stories Written in Paw-prints and Hoof Marks

Canines

Indian Army dogs have saved thousands of lives. Their performance is often beyond quantification.  How do you mathematically grade a life saved in darkness ? Western militaries leverage dogs heavily in explosive ordnance detection and their detection accuracy is often cited in NATO manuals. Indian dogs match them stride for stride, often in harsher conditions. Books like “War Dogs ” by Rebecca Frankel, and “ Warrior Dog ” by Joe Layden and Will Chesney highlight the role of military canines, our own Indian stories are no less heroic, though not always published.

Equines and Mules

No Western military deploys equines at the altitudes India does. Our animals carry artillery components, fuel, rations, sustain remote posts, support humanitarian missions and perform casualty evacuation in impossible terrain. As one American general visiting Ladakh remarked, “In our army, mules are an optional capability. In your army, they are operational royalty.”

6. Lessons from the West: What India Can Absorb

To remain globally competitive, India must strengthen behavioural sciences in training,  genetically improve programmes for dogs and horses, collaborate more on research with Western universities, increase its physiotherapy and rehabilitation facilities and use sensors and biometric trackers more liberally. Books like “The Science and Technology of Dog Training” by James O’ Heare and “ The athletic Horse ” by Hodgson & others provide excellent frameworks.

7. What the West Can Learn from India

Just as India learns from the West, Western militaries envy India’s adaptability in austere environments, deep emotional bonding between handler and animal, ability to operationalise large-scale training despite modest budgets, flexibility in field veterinary care and experience with tropical and high-altitude veterinary science. As Kipling, a noble laureate born in India wrote in his ‘Jungle Book’, “The strength of the wolf is the pack and the strength of the pack is the wolf.” Nowhere is this truer than in our symbiotic dog-handler teams.

8. The Challenges Ahead

Like all military assets, MWAs face headwinds of declining equine and mule usage due to mechanisation, need for enhanced K9 breeding infrastructure, shortage of skilled handlers, increased operational complexity with IED sophistication, necessity for clearer post-retirement adoption frameworks and budgetery constraints in upgrading veterinary technologies. RVC and the Indian military are already substantially addressing many of these, but a sustained policy focus is the need of the hour.

Conclusion: The Future Has Four Legs and a Heart

Military working animals are not mere “assets”. They are comrades with fur. They teach us lessons no classroom ever will viz loyalty without conditions, courage without speeches and duty without complaint. In comparing India with the West, we find two truths: that the West leads in technology and formal science and India leads in field realism, human- animal bonding and operational resilience. Together, they form a complete picture of what the future of military animal management can be, tech-driven but heart-led.

As a retired soldier, who has seen officers, men, horses, mules, and dogs serve shoulder to shoulder, I can confidently say, whenever the bugle calls, our animals will be there, steady, silent, and superior in spirit. They may not wear medals, but they carry a nation’s confidence and conscience on their backs and hearts. And that, perhaps, is the finest uniform of all.