My Pet World: Dogs and their handlers honored in new Sept. 11th coffee table book

Cowards were responsible for the unprovoked attacks against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Heroes responded to those attacks. Among those heroes were at least 400 search-and-rescue dogs and their human handlers, who worked on-site at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa., where United Airlines flight 93 crashed.

The majority of the dogs worked at the WTC site in New York City.

Author Nona Kilgore Bauer says, “I wanted to do as much as I could to honor these dogs and their handlers; I wanted to insure America remembers their role.”

On the 10th anniversary of the attacks, a special edition of Kilgore Bauer’s book, “Dog Heroes of September 11th” (Kennel Club Books, Allenhurst, NJ; $26.95) is now available, including a foreword by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The coffee table book features dozens of photos, some published for the first time. Two images stand out — the pair most often associated with the World Trade Center site. The first is a shot of three New York City firefighters raising the American flag amid the rubble. The second shows Chris Selfridge’s Golden Retriever, Riley, lying in a Stokes basket (a basket stretcher typically used to rescue people) strapped in with harnesses, and pulled by a rope trolley system high above one of the deep canyons at the site.

“Riley wasn’t injured,” recalls Selfridge, of the Pennsylvania Urban Search and Rescue team deployed from Johnstown, Pa. “It was just quicker and safer to get him down (to street level) that way, where it took me about 30 minutes to walk to ground level from the huge piles of debris.”

Selfridge says U.S. Navy photojournalist 1st class Preston Keres happened to be there and snapped the indelible photo.

Not all dogs emerged unscathed from the disaster. Kaiser, a German Shepherd, suffered a deep cut on his front leg that required medical attention. Still, he missed only one shift.

Tony and Annette Zintsmaster were deployed to the WTC site with their two German Shepherds, Kaiser and Max. They were the only husband-and-wife FEMA team working as dog handlers, deployed from Indianapolis, Ind..

Tony recalled a moment of drama when Max alerted him that he had found someone alive on the edge of an opening. He did locate someone very much alive — a firefighter from a previous shift who was still on duty.

“The firefighter understood, and played along as if Max had really found someone,” Tony recalls. “Well, I suppose he did find someone.”

Sadly, no dogs found survivors at the World Trade Center, but they served several unexpected functions. While not trained as animal assisted-therapy dogs, they helped boost the spirits of firefighters, police officers and many others on the scene.

“Kaiser was clearly a social butterfly. Many rescuers stopped Kaiser, began to pet him, and give him hugs,” Tony recalls. “The dogs really did offer something in a way which people can’t.”

The majority of dogs on the scene were trained to find survivors, including a Doberman named Sunny. Shirley Hammond, of Palo Alto, said Sunny was trained to bark at live finds. However, Sunny began to signal by pawing at the ground. It quickly became evident that he was finding body parts.

Sunny was trained at a facility where cadaver dogs were also trained. Hammond believes this previous exposure to cadaver scent, however minimal, had somehow stuck with him. And Sunny wasn’t the only one; other dogs with little or no training in cadaver work began to find body parts. Most of these body parts wouldn’t have been recognizable or recoverable if the search had been left to people working without dogs, Hammond notes.

On one occasion, Sunny pawed at the ground in several spots in an area where a New York City Fire Department battalion chief had requested a search. Sunny found remains of a lost firefighter. As devastated as family members were, finding remains provided closure.

Few of the dogs who worked following the events of 9/11 are still with us. Sunny, who was deployed with FEMA Task Force 3, passed away at age 11 in 2004. Max died at 15½ in 2008. Kaiser, who is still living, retired last year. Riley passed away in 2010.

On a recent trip to New York City, Selfridge happened to be walking by a fire station when he was recognized.

The firefighters “all asked about Riley,” he recalls. “Then they took me inside the station and showed me two framed photos.”

One was of the firefighters raising the U.S. flag, and the other showed Riley in the Stokes basket.

Kilgore Bauer says, “These are images which I hope we never forget. I wrote this book because when most of us think of service to our country, and the many heroes following Sept. 11, we should include these dogs and their handlers.”

Of course, the dogs were just doing what they were trained to do, then they went on with life, a lesson Tony Zintsmaster has also learned.

“9/11 was a horrible, traumatic event. But I won’t let that define my life,” he says. “It’s just something we did, and if we made some difference, I’m glad.”