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Brooklyn native Diane DiGiacomo grew up surrounded by family in law enforcement and joined the NYPD herself in 1993. She transferred to the Humane Law Enforcement Division of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) a few years later. Throughout her career, DiGiacomo investigated animal abuse, responded to complaints, and arrested suspected abusers throughout the five boroughs. On 9/11, DiGiacomo had the day off and was taking her dog for a morning walk when she learned that the World Trade Center had been attacked. Two days later, on September 13, 2001, DiGiacomo was deployed to carry out animal rescue operations. 
 
Soon after the Twin Towers fell, the ASPCA began fielding calls from lower Manhattan residents who had been forced to evacuate their homes and were unable to return for pets that had been left behind during the crisis. Other requests for assistance came from relatives and friends of pet owners who were missing or believed to have been killed in the attacks.
 
DiGiacomo’s protocol was to enter apartments in the company of the animal’s owner or a relative or friend of a 9/11 victim. The apartments often were hot and dusty, and it was not unusual for dogs and cats to hide when she first came in. In some cases, she left food and humane traps and returned in the following days until she was able to remove the animals. Pet fish were easier to retrieve. In an oral history that Di Giacomo recorded with the Museum, she described the satisfaction she felt on witnessing joyful reunions between the animals she had rescued and their human companions.
 
Diagnosed with cancer attributable to her service in lower Manhattan, DiGiacomo became an advocate for Congressional reenactment of the Zadroga Act, which addresses health care for those with medical injuries related to 9/11. After DiGiacomo’s death on November 20, 2015, her family donated a patch bearing the ASPCA law enforcement logo in her honor, along with an archive of documents related to her illness and treatment.