International dog team saves lives after earthquakes in Venezuela

Sniffing and picking his way through the rubble of the earthquakes in Venezuela, Tsunami, a mixed breed dog with Border Collie traits, was on his last mission before retirement.

Recognizable by his heterochromia, with one brown eye and the other blue, he has helped locate several people trapped under the rubble over the last 10 days.

"Our four-legged rescuer managed to save 25 people from the rubble of buildings that collapsed during the earthquakes," Venezuela's government said on Thursday.

After years of service, this will be the last Tsunami mission, according to a publication by K-SAR ECID, Venezuela's canine disaster response team.

"He retires at the peak of his game, proving his mettle and giving his all on the field," the group said.

Some 30,000 rescuers and more than 3,300 international rescue teams have been racing against time to find survivors of the deadly earthquakes that hit Venezuela on June 24.

But those numbers don't account for a crucial part of the effort: Dozens of highly trained search and rescue dogs, deployed with teams from more than 20 countries, are helping turn stories of disaster into stories of survival.

The dogs, specially trained to detect human scent, spent days searching for people trapped under the rubble of almost 200 buildings that collapsed after the two strong consecutive earthquakes.

They can be seen in shared viral videos scavenging through damaged buildings, crawling under broken concrete slabs and squeezing into tight spaces inaccessible to their human handlers.

The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, stated that around 137 search and rescue dogs participated in the operations.

Another member of this elite international team is a Belgian Malinois named Bart, from Argentina, who helped rescue two children alive from the rubble and assisted in the recovery of six bodies, said presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier on Tuesday (30).

Bart is part of a military mission sent by President Javier Milei's government to assist with relief efforts in Venezuela, including search and rescue dogs from the Argentine Marine Infantry.

"We want to give special recognition to all rescue dogs for their indispensable work," said Ravier during a press conference.

A Turkish rescuer stands next to a search dog in front of a building where they are searching for survivors of an earthquake in La Guaira - Matias Delacroix/AP via CNN Newsource
According to the Argentine Ministry of Defense, the dogs are trained to operate in complex disaster environments and perform two crucial tasks alongside their handlers: locating survivors and recovering victims trapped under collapsed structures.

Rambo, another Belgian Malinois trained to find survivors, arrived in Venezuela as part of El Salvador's USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) team.

Fernando Portillo, Rambo's handler and member of USAR El Salvador, said each search begins with the dog examining the area. As soon as Rambo detects the scent of a living person, he alerts rescuers by barking loudly, guiding them to the correct location.

"Rambo's training, discipline and search capabilities made him a fundamental member of the Salvadoran contingent, supporting rescue operations like a true four-legged hero," stated the press secretary of the Salvadoran presidency.

Some dogs even searched for other dogs.

This was the case of Mali, a member of the Topos International Rescue Brigade, from Mexico, who found a white Maltese dog alive under the rubble. Mali also helped direct searches that led to the recovery of six bodies, rescuer Miguel Ángel García told CNN.

Other dogs that participated in the round-the-clock rescue operations included Border Collies Orly and Balam, members of the Mexican Red Cross; Dastan, a Belgian Malinois from the Bogotá Fire Department; and Ivi and Tina, who joined the Spanish rescue teams.

On Friday (3), Venezuela's interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, honored the dogs by granting them the title of "Canine Heroes of Venezuela" during a ceremony in La Guaira, the coastal state hardest hit by the earthquakes.

Among those honored were the four dogs that accompanied rescue teams from Colombia, as well as four from Slovakia, five from Spain, six from Jordan and Portugal, and eight from the Czech Republic.

At least 3,342 people died as a result of the earthquakes, the government reported this Monday (6). There is no official count of the number of missing.

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Source: CNN