Buzz
The world of puppies goes far beyond playful antics and their cuteness. In recent years, some have made history simply by being born. These pups are even chosen for roles like beetle detection or as police dogs (because they are clones of the best dogs from law enforcement).
Moreover, rescue groups continue to save the puppies of Chernobyl’s abandoned dogs, while law enforcement battles against drug dealers and burglars who seek puppies for less than honorable purposes.
10. Tumbles’s Wheelchair
In 2015, a litter of puppies was born, and one male stood out for a very unique reason. He arrived healthy and adorable, but with no front legs. For some inexplicable reason, they simply didn’t develop.
Even though most would see this as a significant physical obstacle, his caregivers chose not to euthanize him. They named him Tumbles. By the time the terrier-beagle mix was six weeks old, it was time to help him become more mobile.
In Ohio, Friends of the Shelter Dogs decided to give him a set of wheels. They collaborated with the Ohio University Innovation Center to create a small, custom wheelchair for Tumbles. Once the 3-D printed device was ready, they strapped him in, and he took his first real steps.
9. Exo-K9 Mask
In 2017, a puppy named Loca had a disturbing encounter with another dog. The Staffordshire bull terrier, just about four months old, sustained severe bite injuries to her head and neck. She was quickly rushed to the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine for treatment.
The puppy was found to have a fractured jawbone, cheekbone, and a severely damaged jaw joint. Healing her required the efforts of both veterinarians and engineers. Prior to Loca’s incident, the vet school had collaborated with the UC Davis College of Engineering to develop a special mask. Named the Exo-K9 Exoskeleton, this innovation represents the future of treating facial fractures in pets.
Much like a human cast, the Exo-K9 mask works by stabilizing the bones during the healing process. However, it is 3-D printed to match the unique shape of each dog's skull. Loca’s head was measured using a CT scan, and the resulting exoskeleton marked the first use of this invention on a patient. Within a few months, the staffie’s injuries began to heal.
8. Chernobyl’s Puppies
In 1986, the world watched in shock as the most devastating nuclear disaster unfolded at Chernobyl. The Ukrainian power plant melted down, forcing workers and locals to evacuate. Authorities ushered residents onto buses but heartlessly left behind any dogs that tried desperately to follow their owners.
Understanding the likely fate, many owners left behind written requests asking the military not to harm their animals. Despite this, soldiers entered the disaster zone and shot any animals they encountered. While humans could be evacuated, there was no concern for pets or livestock that might have been exposed to radiation.
Against all odds, some dogs managed to survive the radiation, soldiers, wolves, and the harsh wilderness. They formed packs and raised puppies. Today, hundreds of dogs continue to roam the area and even live inside the power plant itself.
In recent years, a charity from the United States intervened, sterilizing hundreds of stray dogs. They also captured the first 200 wild puppies in 2018, quarantined them, and prepared them for adoption in the United States.
7. The Bug Sniffer
Museums organize exhibit cases, conduct research, and battle against insects. The latter is a silent but catastrophic issue. Bugs don’t care if artifacts are priceless; they simply want to feast on wood, paper, and textiles.
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has implemented several strategies to fight bugs. In 2018, they introduced a new method that garnered more attention than some of their art collections. Riley, a puppy, not only won hearts with his cuteness but also had a peculiar job—inspecting incoming artifacts for unwanted pests.
The Weimaraner’s training as the “new item inspector” allowed him to detect moths, beetles, and other bugs. If the silver-colored dog picked up a scent, he would sit and signal staff to examine the object more thoroughly.
Weimaraners are well-known for their roles as drug or bomb detection dogs, but Riley may prove that the breed is also fit for pest inspection. If successful, more museums could start using pups like him.
6. The Manchester Robbery
In 2018, a group of men broke into a home in Manchester. This wasn’t a random act; they knew exactly what they were after. Upon finding the homeowner, Leeanne Corbett, they demanded the family’s French bulldog puppies. With her three children present and one of the robbers holding a knife to her pregnant stomach, Corbett had no choice but to comply.
The robbery could have been successful, but the thieves were far from clever. A living French bulldog puppy—emphasis on ‘living’—can be worth over £1,200 (around $1,500). Instead of waiting for the litter to be weaned, they stole the puppies when they were just a day old.
5. The First IVF Litter
In vitro fertilization (IVF) might be old news for humans, but in 2015, it led to the birth of the first litter of puppies. While it may sound mundane, this was a major scientific breakthrough. Since the 1970s, researchers had been trying and failing to create puppies through this method.
The latest attempt faced numerous challenges. Researchers had to carefully collect eggs at the precise moment and prepare the sperm for fertilization, a process usually handled by the female reproductive system.
Using donated material from beagles and cocker spaniels, 19 embryos were generated in the lab. After being implanted into a surrogate mother, only seven embryos made it to full term.
The research wasn’t just about proving that IVF could work for dogs. With the technique now perfected, it can be applied to help in animal conservation. This method could lead to the birth of more puppies from endangered dog species and rare breeds than traditional breeding methods allow.
4. Colombian Drug Mules
Some people exploit the irresistible charm of puppies in the most horrific ways. In 2005, Andres Lopez Elorez went on the run after around two dozen suspected drug traffickers were arrested in Colombia. He was a veterinarian who worked for a Colombian drug cartel.
Elorez’s role was chilling. He was responsible for preparing puppies to serve as drug mules. The pups were implanted with liquid heroin and flown to New York aboard commercial flights. Once they arrived, the drugs were surgically removed from the puppies’ abdomens.
Elorez evaded capture for 10 years. However, in 2015, he was apprehended in Spain. The 38-year-old veterinarian was extradited to the United States, where he faced trafficking and conspiracy charges. It remains unclear how many puppies perished as Elorez’s drug mules. Ironically, during the 2005 raid, 10 puppies were rescued, and one of them eventually became a narcotics detection dog with the Colombian police force.
3. First Identical Twins
In 2015, a South African family realized their dog was having trouble giving birth. The Irish wolfhound was taken to Kurt De Cramer's clinic for a Cesarean section. As he began the procedure, De Cramer noticed an unusual bulge in the uterus. Upon closer inspection, he removed a puppy, only to find another sibling attached to the same placenta.
In humans, this would be considered the case of identical twins. Recognizing the significance of what he had found, De Cramer instructed his assistants to photograph the twins while they were still attached to their placenta. In the meantime, he continued delivering five more puppies, each with its own placenta.
Although the veterinarian initially believed the two pups were twins, others were skeptical. Identical twins are usually mirror images of each other, but the white markings on these two puppies did not align perfectly.
However, when they reached two weeks of age, blood tests and gum swabs confirmed that these puppies were indeed the first identical twin dogs. Their distinct white fur might be attributed to slight genetic variations.
2. History-Making Clones
In 2015, a boxer named Dylan passed away. His heartbroken owners turned to a specialized pet cloning company in Korea. The Sooam Biotech Research Foundation had already successfully cloned over 700 pets, but Dylan's case was different.
Normally, DNA must be extracted within five days after death. However, Dylan had been gone for almost two weeks. When the British couple paid £67,000 ($100,000) per procedure, Sooam decided to try anyway.
The company made a groundbreaking achievement by implanting embryos into two surrogates, each carrying one puppy. Dylan’s owners were present for the first birth via Cesarean section. They had hoped to witness the second pup’s arrival, but the little boxer surprised them by being born a day ahead of schedule.
His natural birth went smoothly, and everyone was pleased except the RSPCA. The practice of pet cloning remains a subject of debate. Cloned animals are more prone to health issues, and the cloning process itself is painful, with high mortality rates before a viable clone is achieved.
1. Super Justice Pup
In December 2018, a puppy was born in China. She took her first breath in a Beijing lab and was named Kunxun. Kunxun was a Kunming wolf dog, a breed that is a cross between wolves and dogs, and is highly regarded by both police and military forces.
By the time Kunxun reached three months of age, she outperformed all the other pups on aptitude tests. This was exactly what her creators had hoped for. Kunxun was a clone of Huahuangma, a sniffer dog whose exceptional nose helped solve multiple murder cases, making her a hero to the Yunnan Province police. The two shared a remarkable 99.9% genetic match.
Training a police dog in China typically takes five years and costs around $60,000. However, if the pup demonstrates the same intelligence as Huahuangma, this training period could be drastically shortened. Kunxun’s progress suggests that she could complete her training in drug detection and crowd control within just 10 months. If Kunxun excels, this project could pave the way for mass breeding of puppies from high-performing police dogs.
