Creature Comforters
Written by Nancy Payne â Posted June 28, 2021
From prime ministers to army privates, people of all ranks and stations adore their animal companions. Pets and working beasts have inspired acts of compassion, conservation, and sometimes even artistic greatness. Furred, feathered, or fetlocked, here are a few animals that have pawed, prowled, and pranced their way into Canadian history.
Donald E. Bent Family
WARHORSES
Roughly one out of every ten horses the Allies used in the First World War came from Canada about 130,000 in all. The Toronto Police Force’s mounted unit sent eighteen, of which only Bunny, a strawberry roan that saw action at Vimy Ridge, survived. Although the city offered to pay Bunny’s way home after the war, the military decided that only officers’ horses would be returned, and he was sold to the Belgian government. The only Canadian Member of Parliament to die in the war, Lieutenant-Colonel George Harold Baker, also had
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In 218 B.C., Hannibal Barca, the great Carthaginian general, had the right idea when he decided to conscript elephants into his army and cross the Alps to wage war against the Roman Empire.
The gigantic beasts served him well, transporting combat gear through formidable terrain and striking terror into the hearts of his enemies.
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Try refreshing your browser. TAYLOR: Animals that served during wars have long, storied history Back to video
When Canada entered the Boer War its first foreign conflict animals were a big part of our expeditionary force.