Animals & Us
Nigel Allsopp
A former military dog handler spent 14 years discovering what governments forgot: the millions of animals who served in war and never came home.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Nigel Allsopp grew up on a small farm in New Zealand, surrounded by animals. When he wanted to own a farm of his own but couldn't afford one, he joined the New Zealand Defence Force as a military working dog handler. For 14 or 15 years, he worked with explosive and narcotic detection dogs, learning firsthand what their noses could do: detect individual scents within a mixture, sense a man's heartbeat over 100 metres away, and see through layers of deliberate deception. Dogs, he discovered, have olfactory glands the size of a king-size bed sheet compared to the postage-stamp size of a human's.
But it was a piece of history that fractured his purpose. Nigel learned that 135,000 horses left Australia in World War I and only one came home. All 11 dogs sent to Vietnam were left on enemy shores. Nine million animals died in World War I and received no recognition. He founded the Australian War Animal Memorial Organisation to change that. He placed bronze plaques honouring pigeons in Caboolture and the Australian War Memorial. He spearheaded the purple poppy campaign, spending years securing permission from military organisations across multiple countries to use the symbol on War and Service Animal Day, 24 February, to honour four-legged diggers alongside the red poppy for human soldiers.
Nigel has written 14 books documenting these stories. He has travelled to Ukraine three times to rescue animals from shelled areas and deliver long-term aid like generators, veterinary equipment, and training for students. He believes animals hold a lesson for humanity: they are non-judgmental, loyal, and capable of unconditional love. If people could be more like dogs, he says, the world would be better.
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