Fairfield-Echo.com

The American Kennel Club's Canine Health Foundation has been working with scientists at the University of Pennsylvania to determine the long-term health impact of search-and-rescue dogs following terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Led by Dr. Cynthia Otto, the scientists have been monitoring the health and behavior of 97 search-and-rescue dogs. As reported in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, no clinically obvious differences have been observed between the dogs and a control group of 44 non-deployed dogs. The proportion of deceased deployed dogs to deceased control dogs is not significantly different, nor is the rate of cancer. More information is available on the foundation's Web site (www.akcchf.org).