Former Shelter Lab Stands in for Canine Hero in 9/11 Film
(From the May 2010 E-Newsletter of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals)
Massachusetts filmmaker Allison Argo of ArgoFilms needed to locate a yellow Lab to complete shooting a new film with National Geographic. The film is about individual experiences on 9/11. One of the film's characters escaped from the 71st floor of One World Trade Center with his guide dog Salty, a yellow Lab. Most of the filming had been completed, but Allison needed to shoot one more brief sequence in a Manhattan office, and she had only two days in which to complete the filming. Sadly, Salty had died, and Allison needed a stand-in for the crucial final filming in Manhattan.
Allison contacted the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals for assistance. We reached out to Labs4Rescue, an Alliance Participating Organization (APO). Labs4Rescue's Ann Hilchey quickly identified an ideal candidate: Franklin (formerly known as Jake), a Lab who Labs4Rescue pulled from Animal Care & Control of NYC's Staten Island shelter in February and adopted to a Manhattan couple, Charles D'Autremont and Jane Sung.
Charles and Jane brought Franklin for his camera call, and Allison completed filming on time. She was thrilled with Franklin's performance, and made a donation to Labs4Rescue in appreciation for Ann and Charles' help. The film, tentatively called My 9/11, will be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel on or near September 11, 2010.
(The Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, Inc., founded in 2002 and powered by Maddie's Fund, The Pet Rescue Foundation, with support from the ASPCA, is a coalition of more than 160 animal rescue groups and shelters that is working with Animal Care & Control of New York City (AC&C) to end the killing of healthy and treatable cats and dogs at AC&C shelters. To achieve that goal, the Alliance, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, helps its Alliance Participating Organizations (APOs) work to their highest potential to increase pet adoptions and spay/neuter rates, with the goal of transforming New York City into a no-kill community by 2015. Additional information about the Mayor's Alliance can be found at www.animalalliance.org )
