After being struck by three major earthquakes in the past month, rescue workers and volunteers across Mexico have been working around the clock, with the help of local and international teams of sniffer dogs and their handlers. These search and rescue dogs have spent weeks now clambering over collapsed buildings, helping their human counterparts locate survivors trapped inside. In turn, local volunteers have been doing everything they can to care for these working animals, as well as their handlers.
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1. Soldiers with specially-trained dogs search for survivors amid the ruins of buildings knocked down by a 8.1-magnitude quake, in Juchitan de Zaragoza, Mexico, on September 9, 2017.
2. Japanese rescuers work with a sniffer dog during the search for survivors at a flattened building in Mexico City on September 22, 2017, three days after a strong quake hit central Mexico.
3. A member of the Mexican Navy stands next to a rescue dog after an earthquake struck on the southern coast, in Juchitan, Mexico, on September 10, 2017.
4. Frida, a rescue dog belonging to the Mexican Navy, with her handler Israel Arauz Salinas, takes a break while participating in the effort to look for people trapped at the Rebsamen school in Mexico City, on September 22, 2017.
5. Rescue workers and volunteers keep silent as a dog searches through the rubble of a four-story clothing factory felled by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake, in Mexico City on September 22, 2017.
6. Rescue workers and a trained dog search for children trapped inside the collapsed Enrique Rebsamen school in the Coapa area of Tlalpan, Mexico City, on September 19, 2017.
7. A sniffer dog stands behind a rescue worker who uses a stethoscope to listen for survivors in Mexico City on September 21, 2017.
8. Spanish rescue dog named Tipi prepares to search for survivors in a collapsed building in the Roma neighborhood in Mexico City on September 23, 2017.
9. Rescuers lower a sniffer dog to help them search for survivors in Mexico City on September 21, 2017.
10. A rescue dog is helped to recuperate by volunteers after he became exhausted during search and rescue operations at a building felled by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, in the Ciudad Jardin neighborhood of Mexico City, on September 21, 2017.
11. A rescue dog is helped to recuperate by volunteers in the Ciudad Jardin neighborhood of Mexico City on September 21, 2017. Thousands of professionals and volunteers are working frantically at dozens of wrecked buildings across the capital and nearby states looking for survivors of the powerful quake that hit Tuesday.
12. A rescue dog and his handler prepare for work at the site of a quake-collapsed seven-story building in Mexico City’s Roma Norte neighborhood on September 22, 2017.
13. Rescuers with a sniffer dog search for survivors buried under the rubble and debris of a building flattened by the 7.1-magnitude quake in Mexico City on September 20, 2017.
14. A member of the Chilean rescue team Los Topos plays with Argentine sniffer dog Tridan at their camp set up in the vicinity of a collapsed building in Mexico City on September 24, 2017.
15. A Mexican rescue worker and search dog resume their work on the site of a felled office building in the Roma Norte neighborhood, after evacuating the area due to an aftershocks, in Mexico City, on September 23, 2017.
16. Drago, a rescue dog, waits with a 47-member group from Guatemala’s Search and Rescue team as they prepare at the civil protection headquarters in Guatemala City, on September 21, 2017, before heading to Mexico to assist in the humanitarian effort two days after the major earthquake that left more than 230 people dead.