Canine hero put down by mistake

WASHINGTON - A DOG credited with saving her owner's life in Afghanistan by barking at a suicide bomber has been put to death by mistake in Arizona after straying and ending up in a pound.

Target, a two-year-old shepherd mix, had appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and won American hearts with her tale after being brought back from Afghanistan by owner Sergeant Terry Young, who was distraught at her untimely end.

'I just can't believe that something like this would happen to such a good dog,' Sgt Young, who found and adopted his four-legged friend at his Afghan base, told local media. 'Even while she was alive, they've been asking me what does this dog mean to you? And really, all I can say is everything. There are no words to describe it.'

Back in February, Target and two others dogs, Rufus and Sasha, barked when a suicide bomber came to Young's Dand Patan base, near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. Sasha, who reportedly bit the bomber, was killed when the man detonated himself outside the camp, but the other two canine heroes survived and were feted like human heroes on their return to America.

Spotted in the San Tan Valley area of south-east Phoenix, Arizona on Friday and mistaken for a stray, Target was picked up by the Pinal County Animal Care centre and taken to the pound.

She was not scheduled to be put down, but an animal care centre employee mistakenly took Target out of her pen on Monday and euthanised her. The employee has since been placed on administrative leave for failing to follow the correct procedures.

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