11-16-2022, 03:09 PM
A serial life-saver:
![[Image: 220px-Frida%2C_perra_de_rescate_de_la_marina.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Frida%2C_perra_de_rescate_de_la_marina.jpg/220px-Frida%2C_perra_de_rescate_de_la_marina.jpg)
Frida (12 April 2009 – 15 November 2022)[1] was a Golden Labrador Retriever who worked as a search and rescue dog for the Mexican Navy (SEMAR). She was deployed to help the rescue efforts in the aftermath of natural disasters. Frida helped save the lives of people buried under the rubble of buildings that collapsed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, victims of a landslide in Guatemala in 2012, after the explosion of the Torre Ejecutiva Pemex (Pemex Tower) in Mexico City in 2013, the 2016 Ecuador earthquake, and the 2017 Puebla earthquake in Mexico.[2] Reports have suggested that she located more than 52 people.[2]
Her trainer and handler was Petty Officer 2nd Class Israel Arauz Salinas (as of October 2018).[3] Equipped with protective goggles, harness, and boots she was trained to bark if she detected someone in need of help.
On 19 July 2018, Frida and her handler were honoured with a statue in the city of Puebla, where she attended the unveiling ceremony.[4][5] A second statue of Frida was unveiled by Secretary of the Navy José Rafael Ojeda Durán at the naval compound in Coyoacán, Mexico City, on 6 October 2022.[6] The statues are not the only artworks that celebrate Frida's heroic actions and achievements: as a social media star and national icon,[7] Frida was featured in fan art,[8] on t-shirts, in comic books, and in a large colourful mural in Mexico City's Roma neighbourhood painted by artist Celeste Byers.[9]
Frida retired from rescue work on 25 June 2019 but remained in service helping to train other dogs until she died on 15 November 2022, at the age of 13.[10][11][12] Following a ceremony in homage to her, Frida's ashes will be interred at the base of her statue in Coyoacán later in the month.[13]
Frida (12 April 2009 – 15 November 2022)[1] was a Golden Labrador Retriever who worked as a search and rescue dog for the Mexican Navy (SEMAR). She was deployed to help the rescue efforts in the aftermath of natural disasters. Frida helped save the lives of people buried under the rubble of buildings that collapsed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, victims of a landslide in Guatemala in 2012, after the explosion of the Torre Ejecutiva Pemex (Pemex Tower) in Mexico City in 2013, the 2016 Ecuador earthquake, and the 2017 Puebla earthquake in Mexico.[2] Reports have suggested that she located more than 52 people.[2]
Her trainer and handler was Petty Officer 2nd Class Israel Arauz Salinas (as of October 2018).[3] Equipped with protective goggles, harness, and boots she was trained to bark if she detected someone in need of help.
On 19 July 2018, Frida and her handler were honoured with a statue in the city of Puebla, where she attended the unveiling ceremony.[4][5] A second statue of Frida was unveiled by Secretary of the Navy José Rafael Ojeda Durán at the naval compound in Coyoacán, Mexico City, on 6 October 2022.[6] The statues are not the only artworks that celebrate Frida's heroic actions and achievements: as a social media star and national icon,[7] Frida was featured in fan art,[8] on t-shirts, in comic books, and in a large colourful mural in Mexico City's Roma neighbourhood painted by artist Celeste Byers.[9]
Frida retired from rescue work on 25 June 2019 but remained in service helping to train other dogs until she died on 15 November 2022, at the age of 13.[10][11][12] Following a ceremony in homage to her, Frida's ashes will be interred at the base of her statue in Coyoacán later in the month.[13]
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.