HAMPSHIRE, England, U.K. — Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service’s 11-year-old Border Collie Byron died last week as a result of a spinal injury he suffered as a puppy.
Byron will be remembered as one of the most elite and highly-trained search dogs in the world, one of the few to pass the United Nations Mission Readiness test.
According to the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, Byron was called to help find survivors stranded at the sites of collapsed buildings and explosions in London. He also completed additional training in Germany and the Czech Republic.
One of the finest moments of Byron’s active career was using his sensitive nose to help find survivors in Fukushima, Japan after the devastating tsunami of 2011.
“He was a proper dog, among the best,” said his handler Robin Furniss. “He was extremely hardworking and even though he lived with me, I think he would have been offended to have been called a pet. He was part of the family.”
Before his passing, Byron passed on some of his skills to a dog named Shelley.