After September 11, 2001, more than three hundred fifty dogs lent ears, eyes, and noses to the search and rescue effort. One hundred of those dogs were deployed by FEMA; the rest came from search and rescue programs around the country. It was the largest deployment of search dogs in United States history.
We may never have an exact count of all the four-legged heroes from around the country who helped sift through the rubble of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. What we do have and will always have is a shining example of human and animal cooperation. Human and dog together dug through toxic dust, burning hands and paws on white hot debris.
Since 2002, the University of Pennsylvania has been conducting an ongoing study of the health of dogs who took part in the search and rescue effort. Of the nearly 100 dogs in the study, twenty-nine have since passed away. However, there doesn’t seem to be a link between disaster site exposure and dog mortality rates — the dogs who were on site do not have a higher mortality rate than other search and rescue dogs. Human workers at the sites were more severely affected. Researchers have several possible reasons for this:
- Humans were on-site instantly, while search and rescue dogs may not have arrived for a day or more after the collapse.
- Dogs spent an average of ten days at the disaster sites, while humans spent longer periods of time.
- Asthma is uncommon in dogs, and they may be less susceptible to reactive airway diseases seen in human responders.
- Dogs have longer nasal passages, which may help filter out more particulate matter.
The study is funded through the end of 2007; researchers hope to be able to track the search and rescue dogs and control group dogs until the end of their lives. A similar study from New York’s Animal Medical Center found similar data from a group of New York police dogs.