Gloria Gilbert Stoga

Gloria Gilbert Stoga & Sgt. Allen Hill

Gloria Gilbert Stoga:


In the early 1990’s Gloria Gilbert Stoga decided to leave her job on New York Mayor Giuliani's Youth Empowerment Services Commission and devote herself full-time to founding a non-profit organization dedicated to training prison inmates to raise puppies to be guide dogs for the blind. Puppies Behind Bars, Inc. formally came into existence in July 1997, and the program was initiated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in November 1997. PBB began with five puppies in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, New York State's only maximum-security prison for women, and now works in six correctional facilities raising approximately 90 puppies at a time.

PBB strives to meet the current needs of the communities in which it works and has expanded its goals accordingly. After the events of September 11, 2001, law enforcement agencies' need for working dogs increased dramatically. To help meet this demand, PBB added the training of explosive detection canines (EDCs) to its program. In 2006, PBB started raising dogs to assist disabled children and adults and launched Dog Tags: Service Dogs for Those Who’ve Served Us, through which we donate fully trained service dogs to wounded soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Sgt. Allen Hill:

Sergeant Allen Hill is a 41-year-old veteran of the war in Iraq (served two tours). He has been in the Army/National Guard for a combined total of 20 years and is still on Active Duty orders. He was injured in November 2007 and came home from Walter Reed Hospital in March 2008, suffering from acute Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). He is plagued with nightmares, migraines, bouts of anxiety attacks and claustrophobia. Hill was riding as a gunner on the last truck of a convoy out of Baghdad when his unit was attacked by roadside bombs.

Sgt. Hill received Frankie about three months ago. He is the 10th veteran to get a dog through the PBB Dog Tags program.

Puppies Behind Bars