Orly, Balam, Kenai, and Halley are not ordinary dogs. They belong to the Canine Search and Rescue Unit of the Mexican Red Cross, Querétaro delegation, and in the early hours of Sunday, June 28, they arrived in Venezuela with their trainer Edgar Martínez to search for survivors after the 7.1 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that shook the country on June 24.
Orly and Balam already know the weight of a mission like this. In 2023 they traveled to Turkey after another devastating earthquake and, in 11 days of work, helped find 4 people alive among the rubble. They are the offspring of Athos, a rescue dog who died poisoned in 2021 along with his companion Tango, in an attack in which Balam was also injured.
Now, together with 25 other Mexican specialists and nearly 3.5 tons of equipment, they once again cross borders to do what they do best: find life where it seems there is nothing left.
