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"Dewey
Defeats Truman"
Chicago
Daily Tribune headline,
St. Louis, Missouri, Nov. 3, 1948
(the morning Truman defeated Dewey)
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.
(USA) — You've begged; you've pleaded (some of you may have
even wet the floor)... Well, your wait is over at last. Here
are the results of our month-long fact-finding mission to uncover
the World Trade Center scams, hoaxes and misinformation that are cleverly
weaving their way into the history books.
True, some of these urban legends are totally harmless—even inspiring—but
still they discredit and belittle the genuine acts of heroism that really
did happen.
Don't feel bad if you fell for any of these flubs. Many such reports were published in accredited newspapers around the world,
which makes us wonder: whom can you trust?
Legend #1
Several Rescue Dogs Were Killed at the World Trade Center
Source: CNN
Published: 17 Sep 2001 7:12 PM EDT
Title: "Dogs
Face Danger at World Trade Center Site"
Summary: CNN interviewed Chicago firefighter Joe Tavitas
and reported:
"Among the dozens of volunteer and official dogs working at the site,
one has already died and another has been maimed, Tavitas said."
The verdict: Untrue.
The goof: In the chaos following the terrorist attacks,
sights were seen and rumors were passed without time to confirm.
Happily, Mr. Tavitas was mistaken. But it
would be months before an official report was made concerning the Ground
Zero rescue dogs. That report states:
"Despite the
hazardous conditions at the WTC site, the canines sustained relatively few
injuries during their work, and no fatalities subsequent to the collapse
of the towers."
Source:
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Published: 4 Sep 2002
Title: "Canine
Search and Rescue Teams' Response to the 9/11 Attacks"
Editor's Note: Although no search-and-rescue dogs
were killed at the World Trade Center, there was one sad fatality: NY Port Authority bomb dog
"Sirius" was on duty the morning of the attack and perished in the basement when the Tower One fell.
(See
"Sirius, WTC Dog Found in Rubble" Jan. 29, 2002)
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Legend #2
A Search-and-Rescue Dog Was Shot by Its Handler
Source: Los
Angeles Times
Published: 17 Sep 2001
Headline: "Dogs
Toil to Edge of Collapse" by Charles Ornstein, Staff
Writer.
Summary: A week after the tragedy, the LA Times printed: "One dog had
to be shot to death by its handler after being severely injured within the
pile of rubble."
The rumor made it across the Atlantic and was published in The Times
(UK) which seemingly confirmed the report, stating that a dog "had to be shot by its handler after
being badly crushed in a pile of rubble."
Source: Sunday
Times
Published: 19 Sep 2001
Title: "Rescue
dogs treated for injuries at makeshift MASH units"
by James Bone
The verdict: Untrue
The goof: (See Legend #1) Again,
the truth may have become inexorably entwined with fears. There was one SAR dog,
"Servus", who had a
very close call, but in general, the experts at the Suffolk County
SPCA's on-site veterinary units made sure that all pooches were patched up
at the end of their shift.
The University of Pennsylvania is
conducting a health study of the teams that worked the WTC and Pentagon,
but conclusions have not yet been published.
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What's true, and what's all wet?
Our senior editor "Wags" offered his candid opinion on some
of the 9/11 rumors and questionable news reports.
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Legend #3
Woman Carries Dog Down 87 Floors
Source: Rikki Rocket
(yes, the drummer for the 80s rock band Poison)
Published: 14 Sep 2001
Title: "Susan's Story"
Summary: A woman named Susan Delage carried "Dirk", a
guide dog with a broken leg, down 87 floors of the North Tower after the
first plane
hit. At the bottom, Susan found the dog's companion, a blind man
named Donald Yeter, placed the dog in an ambulance with him and ran back
inside the tower to assist others. Then the tower collapsed...
Ms. Delage is quoted as saying: "They tell me a two hundred pound wall unit
fell on my back and knocked me out. The search team didn't see me
under it. But a stray dog did. That dog sat by me and barked
until the men came and lifted the unit off me and carried me out.
That dog was Dirk!
"...I woke up 5 hours later in Saint Vincent's Hospital."
The verdict: Untrue.
The goof: We will not contest the superhuman
ability of a person to carry a guide dog (a Labrador weighing between 60
and 75lbs.) down 87 floors, nor will we wonder how a person who is
unconscious for 5 hours could know details of how a dog came to the rescue.
But we will say that Michael Hingston
& "Roselle"
(78th floor, Tower One) and Omar Rivera
& "Dorado (Salty)" (71st floor, Tower One) were the only 2 guide
dog pairs officially listed as being admitted to the WTC on the morning of
Sept. 11. Both of these guide dogs were honored for their amazing
courage under fire and presented with the "Animals' Victoria
Cross" on Mar. 5, 2001.
We would love to be proven wrong on this one, but we have found
no records of any victims named "Delage" or "Yeter"
treated at St. Vincent's in NY.
Sorry, Rikki Rocket (whom we know to be a big animal-lover),
but sometimes you just gotta say "Your Momma Don't Dance and Your Daddy Don't Rock 'n'
Roll".
(What does that mean, anyway?)
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And how many times has someone e-mailed you this one?
This image has been propagated through the internet as "the
last photograph ever taken atop the World Trade Center", showing the view from
the South Tower observation deck as an American Airlines aircraft approaches.
The goof: American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North
Tower, which had no public observation deck. It was a United
Airlines plane (Flight 175) that hit the South Tower where this man
is standing.
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Are you ready for more?
Strange But Untrue Part 2 investigates
World Trade Center Scams & Hoaxes
"Scott Shields Needs $3,000 for Bear";
and more...
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