US Marines were on a foot patrol in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, Afghanistan, when they shot and killed a lethal threat: a local dog that attacked the marines' Labrador retriever.
Captain Manuel Zepeda, the commander of Company F, was unapologetic. If the Lab on the patrol had been hurt, the marines would have lost their best weapon for detecting roadside bombs – and would have called for a medevac helicopter, just as they would for a human. An attack on the Labrador was an attack on a fellow warrior.