14: Trakr
Pulled the Last Survivor Out of the World Trade Center After the 9/11 Terror Attacks
Born: c.1994 Prague, Czech Republic
Died: April 2009, Los Angeles, California, USA
Trakr was a German Shepherd living in Canada in 2001. He had been trained as a police K9 dog in Halifax, and earlier on in his career Trakr had been able to recover $1 million in stolen goods and was known for being able to track missing people. He was technically retired from the police department as of September 2001 according to one source.
On 11 September 2001, Nova Scotia police Sergeant James Symington heard the news of the terror attacks on New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC. Sergeant Symington was Trakr’s handler, and as soon as he heard the news, he loaded Trakr into a van and they drove fourteen or fifteen hours (sources differ on the exact length of time) to Ground Zero, the site of the attacks in New York City.
Upon arrival, Sergeant Symington and Trakr joined other first responders, searching rubble from the north tower. In the early morning hours of September 12th, Trakr alerted to his handler that he had discovered a survivor buried beneath the rubble.
Once they pulled her out, the responders discovered the woman was named Genelle Guzman. She was thirty years old and had been working on the 64th floor of the north tower when the first plane struck. Genelle had made her way all the way to the thirteenth floor before the tower collapsed around her.
When she woke up the next morning, she found herself buried alive in between slabs of broken concrete. If not for Trakr’s training and keen senses, she would have died. Genelle was the last survivor pulled form the wreckage of the towers. Almost 3,000 other innocent people died between the towers, the planes, and the Pentagon attack in Washington DC.
Sadly, Trakr did not escape from the scene unscathed. Soon after finding Genelle Guzman, Trakr collapsed from smoke inhalation, burns, and sheer exhaustion. He was treated by local veterinarians before being allowed to return to Canada.
As time progressed, Trakr began to show signs of a degenerative neurological disorder, which veterinarians believed were caused by his work at Ground Zero; just like thousands of human aid workers who became incredibly sick—or even died—from the toxic fumes and chemicals unleashed by the wreckage.
In 2005, Sergeant Symington (and Trakr) left Canada for sunny Los Angeles. Symington began the Team Trakr Foundation soon after to train and deploy K9 and search-and-rescue dog teams around the world.
Trakr passed away at the age of sixteen in 2009. Before he passed, Sergent Symington had submitted Trakr’s DNA to a California-based biotech company that specialized in cloning. Trakr was selected for the program, and five cloned Trakr puppies were the result! Born in June of 2009 and trained by Symington himself, the puppies were named Déjà vu, Trustt, Valor, Prodigy, and Solace.
Sadly, parts of Trakr’s story were not without controversy. Some believe that cloning of any kind is wrong or immoral, and were upset that Sergeant Symington agreed to allow Trakr to be cloned. Other controversies sprung up from the fact that Sergeant Symington did not receive permission from his bosses with the Nova Scotia police before racing to Ground Zero. He was on leave from his job at the time, and afterward the story created a legal snafu that took years to sort out.
Despite the controversies, at the end of the day all that mattered was that Trakr went above and beyond the call of duty every day, but especially on the days immediately after September 11th. Today, his legacy lives on through the work of his former handler and the cloned versions of him.
Sources:
https://spyscape.com/article/how-hero-dog-trakr-found-the-last-9-11-human-survivor
https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2059858_2059863_2060232,00.html