The nine-year-old Border Collie, once a neglected stray in Caracas, helped rescuers find disaster survivors and joined earthquake response efforts in Turkey and Syria.
Tsunami, a nine-year-old Border Collie whose search-and-rescue career helped save dozens of disaster victims, has been honoured with a bronze statue in Venezuela as he retires from active duty.
Officials in Maracaibo unveiled the monument, titled “Guardian of Hope”, at Vereda del Lago Park. The tribute recognises a working life that took Tsunami from the streets of Caracas to disaster zones at home and abroad.
Tsunami attended the retirement ceremony with his handler, Jorge Beens. Local officials and the fire department also presented him with the city’s Medal of Valor and Honor of Merit in recognition of his service.
From neglected stray to rescue dog
Before he became part of a disaster response team, Tsunami was a severely malnourished stray struggling to survive in Caracas. Animal rescuers took him off the streets and helped restore his health.
Beens recognised qualities in the young dog that would later prove valuable in emergency work: intelligence, energy and a strong willingness to work. He trained Tsunami for urban search-and-rescue operations with the K-SAR ECID disaster response team.
That training prepared him to work alongside emergency crews in hazardous environments, where damaged buildings and piles of debris made the search for survivors difficult. His role relied on the keen sense of smell and agility that became central to his rescue work.
Finding survivors beneath the rubble
During earthquake response operations in Venezuela, Tsunami helped rescuers locate at least 26 survivors beneath concrete, broken brick and collapsed structures. Working alongside human emergency teams, he used his nose to help identify people trapped under the rubble.
His service also extended beyond Venezuela. Tsunami and Beens joined humanitarian response efforts in Turkey and Syria after the catastrophic earthquakes of 2023, taking their search-and-rescue experience to an international disaster operation.
Those deployments formed part of a career spent supporting emergency crews in the search for people who could not escape collapsed buildings. The retirement honours recognise both his work in Venezuela and his participation in rescue efforts overseas.
A permanent tribute in Maracaibo
Venezuelan sculptor Jose Benjamin Figueroa created the bronze monument, depicting Tsunami wearing his tactical rescue equipment. The artwork also captures his distinctive heterochromia, which gives him one blue eye.
Placed at Vereda del Lago Park, the statue marks the close of his active search-and-rescue service. Its title, “Guardian of Hope”, reflects the lifesaving work celebrated at the ceremony.
With Beens beside him for the unveiling, Tsunami’s formal farewell brought together the handler who trained him and the officials honouring his contribution to disaster response.
