Remember The Hero Dogs Of 9/11

When the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, nearly 10,000 emergency rescue workers joined in the efforts to help. More than 300 of those heroes were dogs.

Today, on the 14th anniversary of the largest terrorist attack in United States history, we remember and honor the Hero Dogs of 9/11 along with the countless people who had their lives irrevocably changed by man’s best friend.

From search and rescue dogs to comfort dogs to bomb detection dogs, these canines’ stories of courage, healing and long-lasting legacy must never be forgotten.

During the chaos of the 9/11 attacks, where almost 3,000 people died, nearly 100 loyal search and rescue dogs and their brave owners scoured Ground Zero for survivors. The dogs worked tirelessly to search for anyone trapped alive in the rubble, along with emergency service workers and members of the public.

Even after the dogs couldn’t find people still alive, they provided comfort to the brave firemen and rescue workers of the emergency services.

Special thanks to Brandy Arnold and The Dogington Post

Cindy Otto, DVM, PhD, was one of the first veterinarians to arrive on September 12, 2001, and she stayed for nine days looking after the dogs — ensuring they got the necessary breaks and remained hydrated. “September eleven is really personal to me… The dogs were so powerful,” Otto tells DogTime. Otto is director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center in Philadelphia and an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

While at Ground Zero, the veterinarians were looking for any potential problems in the dogs. “The dust was pretty irritating especially after it rained and everything was wet, and the dust kind of became concrete. So we were making sure there wasn’t any irritation on their pads and things like that,” Dr. Otto says.

After she returned from Ground Zero, Dr. Otto spoke to representatives at the American Kennel Club’s Canine Health Foundation about their call for proposals for funding studies on the dogs of 9/11. Dr. Otto and her fellow researchers started following the dogs in October and by January 2002, they had the AKC funding to study the animals. In the study, 95 dogs from the 9/11 rescue efforts were followed against 55 control dogs who also were search and rescue dogs but didn’t work as part of 9/11.