I got this from VetPet (a vet run forum I'm subscribed to). This is a first hand account of what the dogs went through during those weeks...too sad.

In a message dated 8/30/04 11:17:19 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
That's so sad! And scary. I think 14 is a heck of a lot to die within a
> short time span ... 8 from cancer alone.

There's a lot of similar speculation about the rescue *people from the WTC,
although it's considered too soon to attribute the unusual number of illness
cases to that factor alone.
(See, for example:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-169671c.html)

Taking into account the shorter lifespan of dogs and the condensed course of
cancer development, it's hard not to wonder about the connection. I know I
mentioned it already back when it happened ... that my (adult) kids
volunteered down on the ferry docks the day after the attack. They worked on
volunteer teams that were assigned to various projects. My son boxed and
loaded supplies onto the boats and, as luck would have it, my daughters drew
dog duty and spent two days helping to bathe and feed the rescue dogs as they
came off the shuttle ferries with their handlers. The workers were fed and
tended to medically and so were the dogs. The girls came home in tears, a
combination of their awe and admiration for the human/canine rescue teams and
the upset of seeing how wrecked some of the dogs were, coughing and gagging
from lung irritation, tainted by unknown chemical substances, clods of melted
plastic stuck to their coats and skin, eyes seared, etc. It seemed very
likely that there would be a health price to pay down the road for some of
them.