Four-legged heroes received the prestigious Brave Dog Heart awards: 7 rescued after the earthquake and the award for a dead dog

Right in the first category The rescue act of service and rescue dogs two dogs were exceptionally awarded. Due to the nature of the rescue operation, the expert jury decided to award one dog from the Czech Republic and one from Slovakia.

Both helped in the rescue operation after a severe earthquake in Turkey. Fenka Terezka from the Emergency Department of the Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic marked the place where she believed there was a living person in the dangerous rubble of the collapsed house. The Turkish firefighters started the rescue work and after some time pulled the woman alive from the rubble.

The second awarded dog in this category was the German shepherd Ajax, which belongs to the Mountain Rescue Service of the Slovak Republic with its center in Donovaly. They also helped with the handler Július Janiga after the earthquake in Turkey. In demanding conditions, they slept only a few hours a day.

During the search, they received a report that a human voice was heard in the rubble of a house. It was too dangerous to enter the ruins of the house, where the three upper floors had collapsed onto the two lower floors, so Ajax was sent into the crevice of the ruin. He started barking after a while. His handler squeezed into the wreckage, and as soon as he saw the dog, he saw it fall through the glass wall. Fortunately, the dog was not injured, but began digging intensively. It was immediately clear to Júlio Janig that someone was alive below. Five people were later rescued from the spot. Shortly after that, Ajax marked another spot in the wreckage in a different location, from where two more people were rescued.