PAMPEREDpets
Rescuing the Rescuer the tale of a
World Trade Center rescue dog
can hear from 250 feet away. Search and Rescue (SAR) dogs are trained to smell traces of human scent. When a rescue dog gets a “hit” they stop, and bark until their handler arrives and rewards him. On September 11, 2001 after the World Trade Center crumbled, search and res- cue started immediately. During the eight and a half month recovery efforts, as many as 350 FEMA-certified search and rescue dogs, and their handlers, searched for victims. One of those rescue dogs was Piper,
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a five year old German Shepherd, whose handler is Sonny Whynman, of Blauvelt, New York. They were members of New Jersey Task Force One, a state-sponsored team of about 200 members, including 12 canine units. The bond between Piper and Sonny had been building for many years. Sonny said, “As soon as I laid eyes
ogs can smell one million times better than humans. What a hu- man can hear at 25 feet, a dog
on him I realized that this was the dog I had been dreaming about my whole life, my perfect canine: big-boned, long-hair, with a huge head and the most intelligent eyes I ever saw in a dog.” Sonny fed him a homemade diet
of fresh, raw meat, veggies and supple- ments. In 1999 Piper and Sonny were invited to try out for a team that special- ized in Urban Search and Rescue. Sonny said, “Piper had to undergo an arduous entrance evaluation just to ensure that he had the heart and steadiness for this kind of work. Piper had to learn to climb ladders, to walk and turn around on a narrow plank high in the air, and to be transported across open spaces hang- ing from a flimsy harness. He also had to learn to navigate treacherous rubble piles, leaping across seemingly bottom- less voids, balancing on twisted steel and unstable concrete, while enduring all of
the noise and confusion and devastation of a disaster. And he had to do it alone, without a collar or leash, ready to find a buried victim and stay with him, until I could make my way there and alert the rescuers.” “Piper had barely completed his
Urban SAR training when we were de- ployed to Ground Zero on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. They always send the dogs in first to find victims. The dogs went in with their heads high, ready to do their jobs, but there wasn’t anyone to save. My team stayed on site for 10 days, working 12-hour shifts until we were relieved. Piper and the other dogs never quit, never stopped doing what they were asked to do, while working in that ubiq- uitous white dust, which pervaded every surface: the streets, the rubble and the buildings that were still partially stand- ing.” The search and rescue dogs, and
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