Venezuelan earthquake survivors search for missing pets in an unexpected place: McDonald’s

CARABALLEDA, Venezuela (AP) — Hope came in the strangest of places: A Venezuela McDonald’s.

Gabriela Alves found herself embracing her 6-year-old dog Buddy on Thursday in the fast-food outlet after a week of searching for the white pup that went missing when two earthquakes devastated the South American nation on June 24.

The restaurant, next to the ruins of collapsed state housing complexes, has become a de facto hospital for earthquake victims, as well as a center for locating and treating missing pets in the seaside city of Caraballeda, which was devastated by the natural disaster. Neighbors call it “Hospital McDonald’s.”

“This is a miracle,” Alves said, arms wrapped around the dog with an IV in one of his legs on a table next to restaurant workers selling soft-serve ice cream. “We’ve lost everything material, but at least we’re both alive.”

The makeshift hospital was born one day after the back-to-back earthquakes killed at least than 2,295 people and wounded 11,000, according to Venezuelan officials. Many more families were left scrambling to find their missing loved ones, including cats and dogs lost in the rubble.

Angel Matute and 70 other veterinarians, students, doctors and civilian volunteers traveled from the western city of Barquisimeto. The team was looking for a place to sleep, store equipment and shelter from heavy tropical rain when they found one of the only operational facilities within the chaos. The Golden Arches.

They set up shop in the restaurant, which still had running air-conditioning, and began distributing medical supplies and treating human patients while also becoming a place for treating injured pets and seeking dogs and cats that were still missing.

“For us, a pet is one more human life,” said Matute, who coordinates rescue efforts in the McDonald’s where the volunteers also sleep. “There are animals that are more human than humans themselves.”

Matute was among dozens of bustling volunteers on Thursday treating dogs and cats alongside search teams ordering hamburgers and french fries. His group, which has rescued 140 animals and treated 60 more, plans to continue reuniting owners with missing pets until their assistance is no longer needed.

Alves turned to Hospital McDonald’s when she was desperately searching for her beloved dog.

Alves was at a family member’s house when the quakes shook northern Venezuela. Hours later, she jumped on her motorcycle and frantically rushed to her home to save Buddy, but all she found were ruins.

The 36-year-old Venezuelan said she heard the McDonald’s had become a place to look for lost pets and began making daily laps. She would swing by the restaurant to check if the volunteers had found any white dogs before returning home to yell, “Buddy, Buddy,” hoping to hear a bark. For more than a week, she was met with silence.

“We’re all living one day at a time,” she said Thursday. “Today, I returned and I truly can tell you I had lost all hope.”

She persisted, though, and picked through the ruins, pulling clothes from her mother’s room, the only area of the home still accessible. Then she heard a distant bark, looked down and saw Buddy’s white ear through a crack in the concrete.

Alves screamed for help and nearby rescuers ran to her. They broke a hole in the wall and pulled the dust-covered dog from the debris. Alves sobbed as she cradled Buddy, swaddled in a pink blanket and licking her arm. Hours later, veterinarians at Hospital McDonald’s checked Buddy for injuries after eight days trapped in the rubble.

“Right now, with all the tragedy of the earthquake, it’s one positive thing in all the bad,” Alves said, still embracing her dog. “He’s like my doggie Band-Aid.”

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City.