Mancs (dog)
| Species | Dog |
|---|---|
| Breed | German Shepherd |
| Sex | Male |
| Born | 1994 Miskolc, Hungary |
| Died | 2006 (aged 12) Miskolc, Hungary |
| Nation from | Hungarian |
| Occupation | Earthquake Search and Rescue |
| Employer | Spider Special Rescue Team |
| Known for | Saving lives after earthquakes worldwide |
| Owner | László Lehóczki |
| Named after | Hungarian word for "paw" |
| Awards | Public statue erected in his honor in his hometown |
Mancs (Hungarian pronunciation: [mɒntʃ]) (1994–2006), a male German Shepherd Dog, was the most famous rescue dog of the Spider Special Rescue Team of Miskolc, Hungary. His name means "paw". Mancs' special talent was locating earthquake survivors who lay trapped deep beneath the rubble, and alerting rescuers. He could locate people buried under the earthquake rubble and not only differentiate whether the person was dead or alive, but could also indicate this to the other members of the rescue crew. If he sensed a dead person, he laid down; when he sensed a live person beneath the rubble, he stood up, wagged his tail and barked.
Mancs and his owner, László Lehóczki, took part in several earthquake rescue missions, including the 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador and India. Mancs became famous when he helped rescue a 3-year-old girl who spent 82 hours under the ruins after the Izmit earthquake of 1999 in Turkey.
In December 2004, a statue of Mancs was erected in downtown Miskolc, near the Szinva stream and the new public square. The statue was cast by sculptor Borbála Szanyi.
Mancs died on October 22, 2006, of pneumonia. In 2015, his rescue team was awarded the European Citizen's Prize for their 20 years of work in saving lives. Hatira Kaplan, the girl Mancs saved in 1999, attended the ceremony as a guest of honor and visited the statue of Mancs in Miskolc.
In an article published in Dialectical Anthropology, Melinda Kovács discusses the press coverage of Mancs' world-wide rescue efforts as a notable example of Hungary's international assistance to other countries, particularly Turkey. Kovács writes:
Shortly before that time, Turkey was devastated by an earthquake, which was the reason for aid. In the media, the most visible personality associated with the aid and rescue efforts, repeatedly seen on TV talk-shows was Mancs, a German shepherd rescue dog. His most mediatized feat was finding a toddler under rubble. Several months after the quake, a Hungarian TV channel orchestrated a meeting between the dog and the little girl.
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