JAKE the hero black labrador has died.
Jake hit the headlines during 9/11 after burrowing through white-hot, smoking debris in search of survivors at the World Trade Centre.
He was put to sleep yesterday after losing his battle with cancer.
His owner Mary Flood took Jake for a last stroll through the fields and a dip in the creek near their home in Oakley, Utah. He was in too much pain at the end, shaking with a 105-degree fever as he lay on the lawn.
No one can say whether the dog would have gotten sick if he hadn't been exposed to the smoky air at Ground Zero, but cancer in dogs Jake's age — he was 12 — is quite common.
Mary had adopted Jake as a 10-month-old disabled puppy — abandoned on a street with a broken leg and a dislocated hip.
"But against all odds he became a world-class rescue dog," said Flood, a member of Utah Task Force 1, one of eight federal search-and-rescue teams that desperately looked for human remains at ground zero.
On the evening of his team's arrival in New York, Jake walked into a fancy Manhattan restaurant wearing his search-and-rescue vest and was promptly treated to a free steak dinner under a table.
Flood eventually trained Jake to become one of fewer than 200 U.S. government-certified rescue dogs — a muscular animal on 24-hour call to tackle disasters such as building collapses, earthquakes, hurricanes and avalanches.
After Hurricane Katrina, Mary and Jake drove 30 hours from Utah to Mississippi, where they searched through the rubble of flooded homes in search of survivors.
In recent years, Jake helped train younger dogs and their handlers across the country. Jake showed other dogs how to track scents, even in the snow, and how to look up if the scent was in a tree.
He also did therapy work with children at a Utah camp for burn victims and at senior homes and hospitals.
No one can say whether the dog would have gotten sick if he hadn't been exposed to the smoky air at Ground Zero, but cancer in dogs Jake's age — he was 12 — is quite common.
Mary had adopted Jake as a 10-month-old disabled puppy — abandoned on a street with a broken leg and a dislocated hip.
"But against all odds he became a world-class rescue dog," said Flood, a member of Utah Task Force 1, one of eight federal search-and-rescue teams that desperately looked for human remains at ground zero.
On the evening of his team's arrival in New York, Jake walked into a fancy Manhattan restaurant wearing his search-and-rescue vest and was promptly treated to a free steak dinner under a table.
Flood eventually trained Jake to become one of fewer than 200 U.S. government-certified rescue dogs — a muscular animal on 24-hour call to tackle disasters such as building collapses, earthquakes, hurricanes and avalanches.
After Hurricane Katrina, Mary and Jake drove 30 hours from Utah to Mississippi, where they searched through the rubble of flooded homes in search of survivors.
In recent years, Jake helped train younger dogs and their handlers across the country. Jake showed other dogs how to track scents, even in the snow, and how to look up if the scent was in a tree.
He also did therapy work with children at a Utah camp for burn victims and at senior homes and hospitals.
Comments