PJ is a white German Shepherd who served 14 months in Afghanistan for which the American taxpayer paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his military training and care, evident of his age at 16 years and still going strong. His diet is a simple raw meat diet.
Shelters have a strict rule about outside food in their facilities, together with personal misgivings about his demeanor, PJ is facing a losing battle for the first time and on American soil. And while it’s widely unpopular to target a combat service dog, the shelter system has responded with numerous inexplicable ‘transfers’ from one shelter to another while demanding he share a bed with his handler in an open bay with just a few feet between the bunks as what was the case at a Brooklyn shelter on June 6th, and anniversary of D-day that claimed the lives of 2,501 American soldiers.
While is unconscionable that a combat canine hero would ever become homeless, PJ and Kolden have been inexplicably ‘transferred’ from one homeless shelter to another around New York City for the last 15 months. Kolden believes this is because of PJ and an unsubstantiated perceived threat that PJ presents. In addition to his service on the battlefield, PJ now serves as a service dog for Kolden who suffers with PTSD as many of our veterans do. But each time that Kolden and PJ are transferred, they are pushed further and further down the priority list for housing assistance and receiving more judgement instead to include false allegations.
The current situation stands that it will still take days, weeks, possibly months for a simple NYC DHS background check and their options are to: share a small bunk with 20 other men in an open bay dorm, stay with me on my floor, or sleep in the street. They will of course, stay with me. But while the Mayor of New York City is telling Department of Homeless Services to get the homeless housed (there are currently approx. 40,000 low-income vacancies in NYC), DHS and the VA continue to hamper the process by neglect and incompetence.
