Article written by Ida Simon
Originally published by The Telegraph, 28 July 2026
Dog found covered in dust beside the body of its owner’s mother in collapsed family home
A poodle has been found alive after being trapped under rubble from the Venezuelan earthquakes for 29 days.
Beyli was found covered in dust, curled up in its collapsed family home near Playa Grande by rescuers scouring the site for bodies.
Its owner, 11-year old Victoria Rengel, survived the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude tremors on June 24, but her mother and grandmother were both killed.
Beyli was found next to the body of Victoria’s mother.
“He wanted to protect her,” she said in an interview with local reporters. “I will remember how much he loved my mum.”
More than 5,546 people were killed and 17,000 were injured in the earthquakes last month. Many more remain missing.
One month on, rescue teams, volunteers, and families continue to search through the rubble in the state of La Guaira with hope that survivors could still be trapped beneath collapsed structures.
Desperation has led families and rescuers to use pickaxes, hand tools, and electric hammers to search the debris for loved ones.
Maikol Morales, a La Guardia resident, remains intent on recovering his family: “I already got my mother out, now I am trying to get my father, my sister, and my two nephews out… this is my home… and I am sure they are all here,” he told Reuters.
Another resident, Arlinda Prada, pledged to continue searching for as long as necessary, underscoring the reality that “La Guardia is still looking for its relatives”.
Search and rescue operations continue in La Guaira Credit: Anadolu
The Venezuelan government’s response has been criticised in a new report, which says many more people could have survived had authorities mounted a professional emergency response during the critical first 72 hours after the disaster.
The Miranda Centre for Democracy, based in Washington DC, said: “Where the state did appear, it prioritised control, extraction, and censorship over rescue.”
Angélica Mundrain, who is waiting for the bodies of her son, niece, and nephew to be pulled from the rubble of her beachside apartment block, spent days waiting for heavy machinery to arrive to clear the concrete.
“We’ve been abandoned,” she told the Associated Press. “We feel helpless. What we have seen is a lack of organisation, a lack of empathy, a lack of everything.”
In the critical 72 hours following the natural disaster, while residential buildings, hospitals, stores, and hotels were crumbling or already flattened, the government’s on-the-ground response was largely limited to traffic control, with intelligence agents, police and military personnel manning intersections.
Beyli at a veterinary clinic Credit: Jam Press
In the weeks since, locals said most rescues and recoveries had been carried out by foreign teams, including the UK ISAR (International Search and Rescue).
After Beyli was transferred to a veterinary clinic nearby, vets gave the dog an intravenous drip.
Remarkably, it is expected to make a full recovery, despite being without food or water for a month.
“It is a miracle everything that has happened with him,” the dog’s vet, named as Mirna, told Diario de Morelos.
“He has some ulcers in the eyes, but soon he will be fine.”
Banner image: Beyli the poodle survived the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes in Venezuela on June 24 Credit: Jam Press