All of the rescue dogs that worked on the pile after 9/11 have died of cancer.

Why would the dogs die of cancer?

Asbestos

They apparently died of urbanlegenditis.

The University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School just completed a five year follow up study of the search dogs that worked the pile. Most are in good health.

This is an older reference to the study.

With their noses at ground level, trained to constantly sniff to find humans, they surely breathed in the worst of whatever was present down there.

:mecry:

I'm utterly relieved! Thanks wolf!

I saw a piece on FoxNews today about the search dogs. Apparently there's a new book about the dogs at Ground Zero that looks pretty interesting. I had also heard about the search dogs dying in droves, and am very glad to know that it's not true.

These dogs have a stressful job - they can actually get depressed if they don't find live people every now and then. In fact, their handlers usually "hide" a live person for these dogs to discover after several hours on the job, to stave off stress and depression.

Thanks for noticing the post entry on Neatorama, UT! It looks much better here ...

I would hope they have boots for the dogs like the sled teams use, but I guess respirators are out of the question.

I too, get depressed if I don't find a live one now and then. :o

Many rescue dogs do wear boots, but sometimes the tradeoff between sureness of footing and protecting their paws is a tough choice. As far as respirators go, I'm sure someone has developed them, but it's tough as hell to get a dog to wear a cute little sweater, a heavy piece of equipment would be tougher. Except for balancing things on their nose tricks, most dogs don't like stuff on their faces. It also would impair their scent tracking capability.

If the rescue dog lady is at my meeting tomorrow night, I'll ask her about that, though.

the dogs can't smell with a respirator!

Bingo. :lol2:

Oh yeah?

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