Balam and Orly, two rescue dogs who helped find four people alive and 36 dead in Turkey’s earthquake last February, train in the rubble of Querétaro while guiding the steps of other dogs.

They are the most famous canines, as they are the ones who shared their first training sessions with Athos, the rescue dog who died in 2021 after being poisoned and who pays the greatest possible tribute today: follow in his footsteps in the search and rescue of people.

Under the watchful eye of Edgar Martínez, dog handler for the Mexican Red Cross, the dogs search among the ruins of a building that used to be a popular nightclub and is now the ideal place to recreate what is experienced in a real search scene.

Balam and Orly in the ruins of a building. Photo: EFE/Sergio Adrian Angeles

“We call it a ‘dump’, it is a simulation of a demolished building as it happens in an earthquake, so basically everything is simulated here, sheets, unstable situations, pointy things are simulated,” Martínez explained to the EFE news agency.

The trainers take Balam to another place while Martínez hides under the sheets. The dog runs around the grounds, sniffs the human and barks to warn that it has found it. At the same time, Balam tries to move the rubble and rescue Édgar, who gives him a reward in the process.

The dogs are trained by rescue workers. Photo: EFE/Sergio Adrian Angeles

Rocky and Robinson are the other two dogs that accompany the group, they are led by Orly and Balam, the latter is the son of Athos, who became relevant in Mexico in 2022, since his death by poisoning marked history by bringing the first criminal case against animal cruelty and sentenced the perpetrator to more than 10 years in prison.

According to the training team, when the dogs aren’t in rescue simulations, they socialize with people in public squares and exhibits “so they always stay friendly.”