... and the dog hero that rescued 9/11 survivors

A BLACK Labrador that burrowed through smoking debris after September 11 and flooded rubble after Hurricane Katrina in search of survivors, has died after developing cancer.

Owner Mary Flood had 12-year-old Jake put to sleep on Wednesday after a last stroll through the fields and a dip in the creek near their home in Oakley, Utah. Ms Flood said Jake had been in pain, shaking with a 105-degree fever as he lay on the lawn.

No one can say whether the dog would have been sick if he hadn’t been exposed to the toxic air at the World Trade Centre, but cancer in dogs Jake’s age is common.

Some owners of rescue dogs who worked at ground zero claim their animals have died because of their work there. But scientists who have studied the health of September 11 search-and-rescue dogs have found no sign of major illness in the animals.

The results of an autopsy on Jake’s body will be part of a medical study on the September 11 dogs that was started by the University of Pennsylvania more than five years ago.

Ms Flood adopted Jake as a 10-month-old puppy. He had been abandoned on a street with a broken leg and a dislocated hip.

“But against all odds he became a world-class rescue dog,” said Ms Flood, a member of Utah Task Force 1, a federal search-and-rescue team that looked for human remains at ground zero.

On the evening of the team’s arrival in New York, Jake walked into a fancy Manhattan restaurant wearing his search-and-rescue vest and was treated to a free steak dinner under a table.

Ms Flood eventually trained Jake to become one of fewer than 200 US government-certified rescue dogs — an animal on 24-hour call to tackle disasters such as building collapses, earthquakes, hurricanes and avalanches.

After Katrina, Ms Flood and Jake drove from Utah to Mississippi, where they searched for survivors in flooded homes.

In recent years, Jake helped train younger dogs across the country. He showed them how to track scents, even in the snow, and how to look up if the scent was in a tree.

He did therapy work with children at a Utah camp for burn victims and at senior homes and hospitals.

“He was a great morale booster wherever he went,” Ms Flood said. “He was always ready to work, eager to play.”