Humans make use of anything in order to get the upper hand in war. Chemicals and atomic weapons have been turned into weapons. But long before that, humans have been subduing biological resources. No, I am not talking about plants and viruses. I am talking about animals!
The Egyptian used dogs, leopards and lions to teach fear to their enemies. Even Chinese civilisations and the Greeks relied on dogs and big cats. North African and Indian empires, in contrast, employ elephants in the battle in order to destroy the opponents, morally and physically.
In general, large and strong predators were let loose on the enemies. Starved and enraged, they often led to a slaughter among hostile organisations. In great battles, they could often cause panic within the enemy ranks whereas in small skirmishes, it could even mean victory.
Roman records show that the Kingdom Pontus made use of honey bees in order to repel the Roman besiegers. This has also happened even during the crusades, the siege of Vienna and in many other later battles, bees have been used to defeat the enemies.
Pigeons have been used on a large scale during both of the world wars in order to convey messages, particularly to the front lines where there were shortages of radio equipment and field telephones. The Britons, however, have even put in another vermin to fend off the invader. Rats! Dead rats which were literally filled with explosives should have caused chaos for the cities. However, this method never came out of the test phase. Dogs were also used in the trenches of Westfront, partly to recover the buried, transport ammunitions or bite the flesh out of the enemies’ bones. And even today, the man’s best friend is still proven to be useful in war zones. They are used to track down the buried, serve as the task forces’ threat and guard and intimidate prisoners.
In 2006, the Pentagon experimented with sharks which were sort of remote-controlled in order to carry out sabotages on hostile ships. Dolphins and Seals are trained for similar purposes.
The question that will probably remain unanswered is, how evil mankind mankind actually is, to abuse animals for such purposes.
Bildquelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_in_warfare#/media/File:Belgian_Shepherd_Malinois_on_top_of_tank.jpg
Informationsquelle: http://listverse.com/2015/01/22/10-weird-tales-of-animals-and-the-military/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_in_warfare, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridatische_Kriege, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegselefant
