ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
This article is part of the Research TopicOccupational Health of Working DogsView all 6 articles
An analysis of working dog exposure to environmental contaminants at the Surfside building collapse
Provisionally accepted
Erin Beth Perry1*
Michelle Karpinsky2
Kelly Bender1
Stephen Liang3
Eileen K. Jenkins4
Dakota Discepolo1
Evan T Marquart1
Lauryn DeGreeff2- 1Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, United States
- 2Florida International University, Miami, United States
- 3Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, United States
- 4Huntsville Veterinary Associates, Huntsville, Alabama, United States
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Working dogs deployed to disaster settings face exposure risks to environmental contaminants. On June 24, 2021, a 12-story beachfront condominium partially collapsed in Surfside, FL, leading to the deployment of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urban search and rescue (US&R) teams including working dogs. Hazards identified at the site during ongoing US&R operations included concrete/silica dust, biological materials, household chemicals, pool chemicals/fuel/other regulated materials (ORM), and products of combustion. Samples were analyzed from areas of standing water throughout the search area.Surface wipes were collected from the coat of exposed working dogs as well as reward items utilized by handlers during search operations. Chemical and microbiological contaminant profiles were developed. Elevated levels of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were identified in all fluid samples. Members from the Pseudomonadaceae and Staphylococcaceae family were detected in samples obtained from the center of the search area. Environmental samples collected directly from search areas where dogs are utilized have not previously been tested. These preliminary data are the first to identify chemical and microbial contaminants working dogs may come in direct contact with during search, rescue and recovery operations after a large building collapse. Generation of chemical and microbiological contaminant profiles can inform handlers of real-world risks to working dogs and better inform decontamination procedures to safeguard working dog and human health.
Keywords: Chemical exposure, Decontamination, disaster, Microbiological exposure, Working dog
Received: 14 Oct 2025; Accepted: 02 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Perry, Karpinsky, Bender, Liang, Jenkins, Discepolo, Marquart and DeGreeff. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Erin Beth Perry
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