VOLUME 13, NUMBER 01 • SEPTEMBER 21, 2001

LARC Staff Aids WTC Police Dogs, Abandoned Pets

Fred Quimby, Director of The Rockefeller University's Laboratory Animal Research Center (LARC), came to the aid of dog trainers this week, in an ongoing effort to assist in animal relief at the site of Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center.

With the focus on the body-sniffing dogs working at the disaster site, officials on the scene failed to equip the dogs' trainers properly with respirators, goggles and gloves. Quimby responded to an urgent request from the Canine Search and Rescue Center (CSRC), the group that is managing the medical care of rescue dogs. Thirty pairs of protective goggles, 100 plastic sleeves and 100 respirators were taken from Rockefeller supplies at LARC and Lab Safety and transported to the dog trainers at "ground zero" within an hour. The LARC veterinary technicians transporting the supplies were immediately pulled into service by the veterinary staff present at the site. In addition, as work on the dogs returning to the CSRC began, it was obvious that nebulizers, devices that aersolize medical solutions, were in demand to assist in the treatment of respiratory injury due to smoke inhalation.

Melissa Esteves, clinical veterinarian at LARC, and Nishi Dhupa, chief of emergency medicine at the NYS College of Veterinary Medicine, assisted the other verterinarians at the site. Upon hearing of the need for nebulizers they went to St. Vincent's Hospital,where Dhupa's brother is a pulmonary medicine fellow, and secured the necessary equipment which was once again delivered by LARC veterinary technicians to ground zero.

In addition, Quimby has assisted postdoctoral fellow Gwendolyn Wood, who has organized a community-wide foster care program for pets that were stranded downtown. The dogs and cats are medically cared for by ASPCA's medical teams downtown, and are checked by Quimby before going to their new adoptive home. LARC technicians transported animals entering foster care with Rockefeller faculty

Foster Homes Sought for Abandoned Pets Downtown

After the World Trade Center disaster, thousands of people who lived in the area were unable to return to their homes to care for their pets. The ASPCA is currently working with ongoing relief efforts to recover pets remain trapped in the surrounding buildings. The organization expects an enormous need for pet housing until the animals can be returned to their owners or provided long-term housing. The ASPCA is asking only for temporary housing and/or cages for those who can take these animals.

The Rockefeller Housing Office has approved this effort. If you can provide a foster home for a pet for any length of time, provide cages, food, time, or help set up a Web site to organize this effort, please contact Gwendolyn Wood by E-mail at woodg@rockefeller.edu.