Mexico Gets Puppy from Turkey After Rescue Dog Dies While on Duty

After losing a Mexico rescue dog in February near the Syrian border, the Turkey government presented the Mexican armed forces with a new puppy on Wednesday, CNN reported.

The three-month-old German Shepherd puppy will join Mexico's renowned canine team, which is trained to assist in finding survivors after earthquakes and other disasters.

After an online vote, the black and beige dog with perky ears and big paws was given the name "Arkadas," which means "friend" in Turkish.

The army said the trainer who trained Proteo, the rescue dog that was killed during the Turkey earthquake, will be responsible for Arkadas's training.

After a magnitude 7.8 earthquake devastated a large area near the southern border with Syria, killing at least 54,000 people in both countries, Mexico sent rescue dogs to Turkey.

Mexico Rescue Dog Proteo

Several civilian and military teams in Mexico have canine units trained to search for survivors after natural disasters like earthquakes, BBC noted.

After the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, Mexico sent rescue teams equipped with dogs to help find survivors in the rubble.

A nine-year-old German Shepherd named Proteo was among the deployed dogs; he located a man and a woman out from under the debris.

His trainer said the dog died of "exhaustion" after the long trek and the problematic hours searching for survivors in icy circumstances, refuting allegations that the dog had been hit by falling debris.

His body was brought back to Mexico, where an emotional ceremony was held in his honor before he was laid to rest.

Turkey generously sent a puppy to Mexico, and the country's Ministry of Defence said on Facebook that they were "waiting with open arms" for the puppy, hoping it might one day follow Proteo's "pawsteps."

Turkey Earthquake

The Pazarck district of Kahramanmaras province was the epicenter of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Southern Türkiye in the early hours of February 6.

Nearly 16 million people, including about 1.8 million Syrian refugees, live in the provinces of Adyaman, Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Osmaniye, Kilis, Gaziantep, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Elaz, and Adana, all of which were affected by the earthquake.

After nine hours, a second major earthquake of magnitude 7.5 struck the area, causing additional destruction of damaged buildings. Aftershocks were recorded in the disaster area.

The Interior Minister has confirmed that 50,399 persons perished in the earthquake. After 60 days, 1,200 people are still missing and presumed dead, according to ReliefWeb.

The most recent official numbers put the injured over 107,000.

The tragedy was the worst in modern Turkey's history, causing the collapse or severe damage to more than 160,000 buildings and 520,000 apartments.

Approximately 2 million people were reported to have fled the area following the initial quake and the more than 11,000 aftershocks that followed, according to a statement released by AFAD.

Over 350,000 tents in "tent cities" were erected in 332 locations. A total of 162 sites had container-based communities developed, according to Reuters.

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Mexico gifted a new search puppy from Turkey - From Reuters