Service dogs dedicate – and sometimes even risk – their lives to help humans in performing tasks, accomplishing goals, embarking on adventures, overcoming emotional issues such as PTSD, and safeguarding our military service members. National Service Dog Month, held every September, is an honorary celebration of the role these incredible animals play in our lives. As an SDVOSB, VMSI is honored to recognize Semper K9’s mission to rescue dogs from shelters and train them to be service dogs at no cost for disabled service members.
Combat veteran founded and operated, Semper K9 is a 501(c)3 Public Charity that enhances the quality of life for wounded, critically ill and injured members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families by providing them assistance dogs for psychiatric alert and mobility challenges free of charge.
“I wanted to take my skills the Marine Corps taught me and my post-deployment challenges to assist other veterans to overcome their own difficulties,” Christopher Baity said. He and his wife, Amanda, founded Semper K9 in 2014 and currently have a one hundred percent success rate with their services.
“The most important things to us were to utilize rescue dogs and ensure that our veterans are assisted at no cost to them,” said Baity. “Also, being a military family with small children, the family involvement was high on our list of priorities since our mission is to enhance the quality of life for our wounded veterans.”
Because of his dedication to Semper K9’s mission, Baity was awarded American Heroes Channel’s Red Bandanna Hero in 2016 and named a Washingtonian of the Year for 2017 by Washingtonian magazine.
Want to support Semper K9’s mission? Here’s how you can help:
- Help save two lives at once – consider making a donation that will go toward helping a veteran receive a custom trained service dog to aid in their recovery – https://donate.semperk9.org/give/169047/#!/donation/checkout
- Participate in their 3rd Annual Hero Hike taking place virtually Veterans Day week 2020 – https://donate.semperk9.org/herohike2020