A Secret Service dog credited with stopping an intruder who scaled the White House fence in 2014 has become the first foreign canine to receive a top British honor.
Hurricane, a 10-year-old black Belgian Malinois, was awarded the Order of Merit from the PDSA, which is a prominent veterinary charity. The group equates the honor to the Order of the British Empire.
President Barack Obama was in the White House on the night of the breach. Hurricane and his handler, Special Operations Officer Marshall Mirarchi, were working that night, and Hurricane sprang into action after the intruder managed to fight off the first canine team deployed to stop him.
“The second he got target lock, I sent him,” Mirarchi told Voice of America. “He weaved through our teammates and took the individual down. Your normal scenario is that’s it, and you go up and get them. This was obviously different.”
Mirarchi described how the intruder injured Hurricane by punching and kicking him, even swinging him through the air as the canine latched his jaws tight onto the man’s arm.
“You’re not expecting someone to fight a dog back for that long with that much violence,” Mirarchi recalled. “The individual wasn’t responding to any pain for whatever reason. So, I had to sit back and kind of watch Hurricane go to war. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”
Hurricane was able to successfully bring the man to the ground so that he could be apprehended.
The dog, who is now retired and lives with Mirarchi, was flown to London by British Airways and was given a luxury flat-bed seat next to his owner. The duo also shared a limousine ride to the airport.
PDSA Director General Jan McLoughlin said Hurricane’s award was well-deserved and a recognition of his proven devotion to service.
“It’s given for animals who show distinguished service for society, who go above and beyond that level of human and animal companionship — devotion to duty,” McLoughlin said.
