Here are the top highlights of this year s festival.
Meet One Betta, one of the COVID-sniffing dogs at SOBEWFF.
Photo by Laine Doss
COVID-Sniffing Dogs
Though the festival had many COVID security measures in place, the most adorable had to be the troupe of COVID-sniffing dogs. The dogs named Cobra, OneBetta, Mac, and Hubble were trained to detect the odor produced by metabolic changes in people infected with COVID. One trainer told
New Times that the dogs sniffed masks that were irradiated to kill the virus yet still had the scent. The dogs were initially part of Florida International University s COVID safety measures. Though the working dogs wore harnesses asking not to be pet, they were the subject of thousands of admiring gazes and likely wound up on more Instagram photos than any Food Network celebrity chef.