The 9/11 attacks brought about the largest deployment of Search and
Rescue (SAR) dogs in U.S. history. Over 350 trained SAR dogs and
handlers came to the Twin Towers site and the Pentagon to search for
survivors and to find bodies. The SAR dogs were mostly Labrador
Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, Collies, along with
some Spaniels, Dachshunds, other pure breeds and plenty of talented
mutts.
This event created a remarkable elevation of the human-canine bond,
where dogs and people worked together, understood each other's needs,
and helped each other on physical, emotional and even spiritual levels,
to get through a crisis neither species understood. Over and over again,
there were amazing scenarios of dogs helping people and people helping
dogs.
As the dogs worked with their handlers up to 16 grueling hours a day,
it soon became apparent that the dogs were nearly as distraught as the
human rescuers when there were so few survivors to be found. For the
human rescue workers, the lack of survivors made the attacks feel ever
more horrific and tragic. For the dogs trained to find survivors,
though, it felt like a personal failure.
From a SAR dog's perspective, being a good dog means you do your job
and find the people you're supposed to find. The long days of climbing
through rubble, squeezing through tight spaces, sniffing every nook and
cranny and finding no living people caused the dogs great stress –
they seemed to think this failure was their fault. Handlers and other
rescue workers had to regularly hide in the rubble in order to give the
dogs a successful find, and keep their spirits up.
After only a week or so, it became apparent that no more survivors
were to be found. The SAR dogs trained to find the living were honorably
discharged from duty, as heroes. Dogs trained to find the deceased took
over. They worked side by side with their handlers dutifully, for weeks
on end.
There was a support system in place to care for the dogs, who could
become exhausted, overwhelmed or injured. A canine medical camp was set
up to treat them. Sometimes a chiropractor would come in and give dogs a
soothing massage to relieve stress and sore muscles.
A few weeks into the rescue, a SAR dog named Servus, a Belgian
Malinois, fell head-first 20 feet into a jagged pocket within the
rubble. The reaction that followed demonstrates how much a SAR dog means
to his handler and disaster workers. The crew stopped what they were
doing and worked frantically to save the fallen dog. His handler climbed
down and found Servus suffocating, his nose filled with dust and
debris. Servus was in shock. The crew lifted him out, cleared his
nostrils and gave him oxygen. A nurse shaved a leg and inserted an IV.
Then, he was placed in the back of a police cruiser and sped off with
three police motorcycle escorts, blaring sirens and flashing lights to
get Servus to the nearest animal hospital. Servus recovered and demanded
to return to work the very next day!
Not every dog dispatched in the recovery effort worked in the rubble.
Some dogs were dispatched specifically for therapy. They are trained to
detect stress and trauma in humans and aided the people who worked long
days doing the heartbreaking job of finding human remains. The dogs
brought comfort to weary, stressed workers. The SAR dogs also took on
side duties of comforting their handlers and other workers who were
overwhelmed.
One dog hero of 9/11 was actually on the 71st floor of the north
tower when the plane hit. Dorado, a Labrador Retriever, was a guide dog
for his blind owner. When glass was flying everywhere, the heat and
smoke were intense, and there was panic all around, the blind man knew
he had no chance of getting out. He unleashed his dog and commanded him
to go, so he could escape and live. Dorado was swept up in the panic,
but moments later found his owner and insisted that he move. Dorado
guided his owner down 70 flights of crowded stairs. It took an hour to
get out, but they emerged to safety just before the building collapsed.
Search and Rescue Dogs save human lives every day. The magnitude of
9/11 brought over 300 of these devoted canines together, bringing
international attention as to how remarkable they are. After 9/11, some
SAR dogs retired from duty and lived out the rest of their lives as
pets. Some went on to work other major disasters, such as Hurricane
Katrina.
