Mica given Medal for rescue work

Member of the rescue and humanitarian aid team, ONG  ‘Grupo Balear Rescate y Ayuda Humanitaria’, to be awarded Police Medal of Merit

The non-profit Balearic rescue group,Grupo Balear Rescate y Ayuda Humanitaria, is setting off on a new mission to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, a zone affected by earthquake last September.

Earthquake rescue team

The ONG already participated in the initial rescue tasks at that time.

In May 2024, Palma town hall wants to award a key member of the Group the Police Medal of Merit in recognition of her work. Her name is Mica, and she is a small black labrador.

Trained rescue dog finds victims in rubble

She is trained to find people under rubble and in other concealed locations on the basis of a scent trace they have left behind, in this case from a baseball cap.

All her training takes place in a reward system, triggered when she finds a victim and barks to indicate their location until the rescue personnel arrives. Her handler then rewards her by engaging in play with her favourite toy.

Mica herself cannot necessarily get to the victim, that is the job of the medical personnel from the rescue team.

Ongoing training

Dog handler Manu Sánchez says training is always ongoing, two to five times a week, and he has been training Mica for the past seven years. Mica’s work is a fundamental task that is vital for the rescue team in locating and rescuing trapped and hidden people.

Mica and the Balearic group have already participated in missions in Turkey and Morocco.

The team is now returning to Morocco in a convoy with a new mission: transporting shoes and school materials to children affected by the earthquake in the Atlas region.