SINGAPORE - As search and rescue teams continue to seek out survivors from among the rubble of last Monday’s earthquake in Turkey and Syria, rescue dogs from Singapore and its South-east Asian neighbours Malaysia and Thailand have emerged as key members of these operations.
These trained canines, with their keen sense of smell, are able to work in tandem with the human members of the rescue teams and access areas that humanitarian aid officers find difficult to reach.
Their senses are especially useful in the two countries, where hundreds of buildings have collapsed due to the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, leaving more than 37,000 dead and thousands more missing so far.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force team sent four canines along with its 68-man Operation Lionheart contingent to the south-eastern Turkish town of Kahramanmaras, near the quake’s epicentre.
The dogs, including two labrador retrievers Frenchy and Rizzo, have been deployed to sniff out areas that could become potential rescue sites, helping the teams assess the need to use search equipment to home in on victim locations, said the SCDF on Facebook.
The SCDF said thermal jackets and blankets help ensure the canines are kept warm in wintry conditions, where temperatures can plunge to 2 deg C.
Thailand’s search and rescue team in Turkey, including its two sniffer dogs Sierra and Sahara, has drawn attention on social media, said Thai daily The Nation.
The female golden retrievers in the team from the country’s urban search and rescue team have raised awareness of the role sniffer dogs play in these missions.
Photos of seven-year-old Sierra and six-year-old Sahara have been shared widely on social media, along with an outpouring of concern for those affected by the deadly catastrophe.
Both dogs had passed training certified by the International Rescue Dog Organisation and have been tasked to search for earthquake victims in the rubble.
The Thai team started work on Saturday in Hatay, a southern Turkish province on the Mediterranean coast that borders Syria.
Malaysia’s tracker dogs Denti and Frankie are on their first mission abroad, less than two months after their high-profile search and rescue job during the landslide at Batang Kali near Genting Highlands that killed 31 campers.
Both Denti, a labrador retriever, and English springer spaniel Frankie are in southern Turkey helping to locate casualties of the earthquake in 12-hour shifts, The Star newspaper reported.
On Saturday, they discovered and rescued five family members who had been trapped under the rubble of their residential building for six days, Bernama reported.
A Malaysian tactical operations official said the dogs are trained to find victims, alive or dead.
They were accompanied by their handlers, said unit chief Donny Chap.
He told The Star that the two canines, who received “Hero Malaysia” medals following their efforts during December’s landslide, had been given sufficient rest before their latest deployment.
