Philadelphia airport celebrates its brigade of stress-busting therapy dogs

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A pack of four-legged therapists got a break of their own on Monday when they were honored at the airport where they dutifully work to ease stress and calm travelers.

The event at Philadelphia International Airport marked five years since the 23 members of the Wagging Tails Brigade began greeting people and serving as therapy dogs.

Several of them were presented with birthday presents and a customized cake while passersby were invited to eat cupcakes and sign an oversized birthday card.

Members of the brigade and their volunteer human handlers are at the airport for at least two hours a week, impressing people with their tricks and doing what they can to raise the spirits of road-weary passengers. Dogs wear vests asking people to “pet me.”

Alan Gurvitz, a volunteer with Hope, a Labrador retriever, said their goal is to make travel a bit more pleasant.

“I like to refer to the airport as the land of cancellations and delays. So people tend to be very stressed out here,” Gurvitz said.

Jamie and Victoria Hill, on their way to their honeymoon in the Dominican Republic, turned to pet Bella while trying to stay positive after their flight was delayed.

“It's reminded us of our dog back at home," Jamie Hill said. “We miss him.”

Back in June, Nancy Mittleman recalled, she was at the airport with her German shepherd Tarik while bad weather snarled air traffic. The two of them spent several hours entertaining stranded children and their parents.

“Soon enough, I had an entire crowd around me," Mittleman said. "There must have been 10 kids sitting around him and they were talking to each other. And the beauty of it was before that, there were a lot of stressed out parents and a lot of unhappy children.”

Volunteers try to coordinate to have at least one brigade member at the airport to greet travelers, especially on days with significant delays or disruptions.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of a volunteer's first name to Alan Gurvitz, not Allan.

CORRECTS NAME TO ALAN NOT ALLAN - Alan Gurvitz, a volunteer with his therapy dog, Hope, a Labrador retriever, offered their service to passengers at the Philadelphia International Airport on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

A therapy dog who is a member of the Wagging Tails Brigade kissess an airport staff member at the Philadelphia International Airport on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

A passenger pets a therapy dog, a member of the Wagging Tails Brigade, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. Members of the Wagging Tails Brigade and their volunteer handlers were honored on Monday at Philadelphia International Airport. They have been doing their work the airport's corridors for five years greeting people and serving as therapy dogs to help conform travelers.

Allan Gurvitz, a volunteer with his therapy dog, Hope, a Labrador retriever, offered their service to passengers at the Philadelphia International Airport. Members of the Wagging Tails Brigade of therapy dogs were honored on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024 at Philadelphia International Airport. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australian police seized a record 2.3 tons of cocaine and arrested 13 people in raids after the suspects' boat broke down off the coast of Queensland, authorities said Monday.

The drugs had a sale value of 760 million Australian dollars ($494 million) and equaled as many as 11.7 million street deals if they had reached the country of 28 million people, federal police said in a statement.

Investigators told reporters in Brisbane that the drugs were transported from an unidentified South American country.

The arrests on Saturday and Sunday followed a monthlong investigation after a tipoff that the Comancheros motorcycle gang was planning a multi-ton smuggling operation, Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay said.

The smugglers made two attempts to transport the drugs to Australia by sea from a mothership floating hundreds of kilometers (miles) offshore, Jay said. Their first boat broke down, and the second vessel foundered on Saturday, leaving the suspects stranded at sea for several hours until police raided the fishing boat and seized the drugs, he said.

The mothership was in international waters and was not apprehended, Jay said.

Authorities have seized more than one ton of cocaine before, Jay said, but the weekend's haul was the biggest ever recorded in Australia.

Those charged are accused of conspiring to import the drug into Australia by sea and were due to appear in various courts on Monday. The maximum penalty under the charge is life in prison.

Some were arrested on the boat while others were waiting on shore to collect the cocaine, police said. Two were under age 18 and all were Australian citizens, they said.

“Australia is a very attractive market for organized criminal groups to send drugs such as cocaine,” Jay said.

This story corrects the dollar conversion to $494 million.

Australian Federal Police officers stand with approximately 350 kilograms (770 pounds) of seized cocaine at a press conference at the AFP headquarters in Brisbane, Australia, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (Jono Searle/AAP Image via AP)