Overview
- The twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on Wednesday, June 24 caused widespread collapse, rising death counts, and thousands reported missing as search-and-rescue teams mobilized.
- Dog-and-handler teams were deployed in the first hours of the response because dogs can detect live human scent in voids that drones and thermal cameras may miss.
- Tsunami, an eight-year-old border collie trained by Jorge Beens of K-SAR ECID, has been credited by rescue teams with marking at least one confirmed survivor at Residencias Rita in San Bernardino and with many other field interventions.
- International brigades and additional rescue dogs such as Kyara have arrived to boost capacity, and Tsunami is receiving extra veterinary care and consideration for retirement because of his age.
- Tsunami’s story — rescued from abuse, rehabilitated, trained and previously deployed to Turkey and Aragua landslides — highlights how trained dogs combine technical skill and public morale while search numbers and casualty figures remain fluid and the immediate search window narrows.