Meet Joey, the LA County search-and-rescue K-9 who helped find 3 survivors in Venezuela quake rubble
By Ashley Mackey
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LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Meet Joey, a life-saving Labrador Retriever with the Los Angeles County Fire Department who performs search and rescue.
Joey may enjoy chasing a ball and snuggling with family, but the 2-year-old pooch is also a certified search-and-rescue K-9 credited with finding three people alive after a deadly earthquake.
Joey is a member of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, also known as USA-2. Now, he’s a semifinalist in the American Humane Society’s 16th annual Hero Dog Awards.
“When he’s not working, he likes to play with his ball. We usually play about 20 minutes every day at the park. He loves to snuggle with the family,” Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Louis Gudiel said.
Joey and Gudiel trained together for more than five months before becoming certified.
“We trained for over five months to get him certified, and Joey and I were certified in September of 2025, and we were mission-ready to deploy anywhere in the world,” Gudiel said.
That call came in June, when Joey and Gudiel deployed to Venezuela following a deadly earthquake. They arrived three days after the disaster, and Joey found three survivors buried in the rubble.
“It feels good to put in all that work, all that training, and be able to deploy and make a difference. So when we get those live alerts, it’s not only good as a K-9 team, but it’s also for our department and our nation,” Gudiel said.
When Joey is not searching for people in disaster zones, he provides comfort to first responders at his station.
“I’ve never been at a station with a dog before, so having Joey here is really cool. He’s here for us, he helps us, and it’s cool just saying you have an international hero working at your station,” Los Angeles County firefighter Matthew Vela said.
Joey is competing as a law enforcement and first responder dog semifinalist in the 16th-annual Hero Dog Awards.
People can vote for Joey once every 24 hours through Sept. 18 on the American Humane Society website.
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