SCDF Dogs Now In Quarantine After Returning From Turkiye, They’re Visited By Shanmugam

4 SCDF Search Dogs Now In Quarantine To Avoid Importing Disease, They’re In Good Health

After a week in Türkiye assisting with earthquake rescue operations, the Singapore Civil Defence Force’s (SCDF) Operation Lionheart (OLH) contingent returned home on 18 Feb.

While the human members received a hero’s welcome at the airport, the four search canines that accompanied them had to go into quarantine.

While there, they were visited by an important guest — Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam.

4 SCDF dogs in quarantine at AVS centre

In a Facebook post on Sunday (19 Feb), the SCDF said four canines from the SCDF K-9 unit were being quarantined at the Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS) Animal Quarantine Centre (AQC).

This is after they returned from Türkiye, where they assisted with search operations by sniffing out debris to find survivors.

Dogs and cats travelling into Singapore are quarantined at the AQC to ensure that exotic diseases like rabies are not introduced into Singapore, SCDF explained.

SCDF dogs visited by Minister Shanmugam

During their quarantine, the doggos were graced by Mr Shanmugam, who came to see how they were getting along.

He saw that they were in good health and interacting well with their respective handlers, who were also deployed to Türkiye.

The handlers shared the measures in place to help the canines adapt to life in Türkiye, especially the cold climate.

That included having the dogs wear protective and thermal clothing to keep them warm.

AVS also explained to the minister how the dogs would be taken care of during their quarantine, including using radio-frequency trackers.

Dogs are well-cared for

SCDF has assured Singaporeans that the dogs were well-cared for during and after their deployment.

It’s the least they deserve, considering how the intelligent canines helped make the search operations in Türkiye more efficient.

We hope the doggos will continue to be in good spirits and get released from quarantine in no time.

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Featured images adapted from SCDF on Facebook and Facebook.