CANIS Specialist Search Dogs

email canis@daleproman.com
charity no.1079494

Canis is a team of experienced rescue personnel who train and use dogs to search for persons who are buried under collapsed buildings or have become lost in an urban environment. We are members of the International Rescue Dog Organisation ( Vienna) and have membership of the International Emergency Technical Rescue |Institute.

We are deployed internationally at the request of the Department For International Development ( DFID ), and nationally at the request of the Police.

The founder members of Canis have all been training specialist dogs for about twenty five years either as members of mountain rescue teams or of the Fire Service. All have been very active in their respective fields having had some notable successes.

Canis members were invited to assist at a number of international major disasters as for example the earthquakes in Taiwan, Kolbe, Turkey and the floods in Mozambique and Colombia. Four dogs were eventually deployed at both Turkish earthquakes where they and their handlers assisted the United Kingdom Fire Service Search and Rescue Teams and the International Rescue Corps.

Nationally Canis is also very active, assisting local police forces in searches as for example at the building collapse in Liverpool where our dogs located a missing workman who had unfortunately been killed. We have also been active in Northern Ireland in the search for a missing elderly resident and for two young persons who had become separated from their group in a large forested area.

To assist our work in the international dimension, we urgently need to achieve special exemption status in respect of our current quarantine laws. Following the Turkish deployments we lost four of our most experienced dogs for six months each.

Since that time we have made unsuccessful representations to Mr Brown, Minister for the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food and had meetings with MAFF veterinary officers.

We have, however learned that the advice given to the Government during its’ initial deliberations on quarantine law changes, was provided by a group known as the “Kennedy group”. This was made up of a number of eminent people and included,

Professor Oswald Jarrett, PhD, BVMS, MRCVS, FRSE
Professor of Comparative Virology
University of Glasgow, Department of Veterinary Pathology,

Dr Chris Dye an epidemiologist
Communicable Diseases
World Health Organization
Geneva
Switzerland.

Apparently, part of their remit was to structure whatever recommendations they might make, within parameters already laid down by MAFF. What they finally produced was fully accepted by MAFF and the UK Government and formed the basis of what is now the Pet Passport Scheme. Some of the objections expressed by Mr Brown to our request for special exemption , and our responses to these objections are considered below:

a. Search dogs could ingest saliva from a rabid dog

It is the opinion of Prof Jarrett that the virus in the saliva of a rabid animal has a limited lifespan of only a few minutes in the open air, therefore there is only a very remote possibility that another dog would ingest it as a live virus. In any event, where a dog had been properly injected against rabies, the chances of it contracting the disease under any circumstances would be very remote.

Furthermore, in operating dogs on a disaster site within the controlled conditions we advocate, the area would in the first instance have to be cleared of other animals. A period of time would then be allowed to elapse before any of our dogs would begin work, which in turn would make it virtually impossible for one of them to come in contact with a live virus.

B. Could not guarantee a dog being bitten

We believe that this concern can also be addressed simply by working a dog on a leash to protect it from other dogs. In the unlikely event that a dog is thought to have been bitten, it would immediately be isolated from other dogs and on return to the UK would enter quarantine, remaining there until a blood test proved it to be rabies free.

C. A dog working out of sight would be an increased risk

If a dog were working on a leash then it is impossible for it to work out of sight. In practice dogs are never more than a few feet from their handler because of the inherent dangers in this type of work.

D The vaccine is not a 100% safe

According to Prof Jarrett, in all studies so far undertaken, 96/7% of the population of dogs vaccinated, develop antibody levels sufficient to give them 100% protection against rabies. The remaining group when re-inoculated, will usually achieve the desired titre levels. There remains, however, a very small percentage which may still not fully meet the optimum antibody level, but even they would be deemed safe within the current guidelines. Canis would not be attempting to deploy any dog they might have which fell into this latter category.

E The Canis scheme would not meet the requirements of safety.

Clearly the points made above, together with our proposals for operating dogs abroad, show that safety is of paramount importance to us. Indeed we would argue that our restrictions are even more stringent than those currently required by the Pet Passport Scheme. This viewpoint is substantiated by a new risk assessment concluded on behalf of Canis Specialist Search Dogs by Dr Chris Dye , which clearly demonstrates that our plan falls well within the limits of the Governments own risk assessment policy:
Communication from Dr Christopher Dye to Neil Powell, Canis Training Officer;

“Neil:
It is fairly easy to make your case quantitatively. Let's say your dogs are typically exposed to rabies incidence rates of 100/million/year - which was our best estimate for high-incidence countries (though locally it can be higher). Assume also (as we did in the MAFF exercise) that a dog born in the UK, kept fully vaccinated, with antibody titre always above the defined threshold, is 99% protected against a rabies bite.

I don't know how much time your dogs spend in the field. However, if they spend 100 dog-days/year (made up from any number and combination of animals) at work outside the UK, the risk would be 1 in 3.65 million/year. This risk is about 100,000 times lower than the expected risk under PETS (which in itself is low). If they spend as much as 1000 days/year in the field, then the risk would only be 10,000 times less than under PETS. In any event, the risk is - relatively and absolutely - very low indeed.
Christopher Dye, DPhil
Communicable Diseases Control, Prevention & Eradication
World Health Organization
1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland

Phone +41 22 791 2904/3986
Fax +41 22 791 4268
Emails dyec@who.int, dye_bouma@compuserve.com

F A 100% safe proposal

Clearly these figures show that the proposals we advocate are of significantly lower risk than that of the Governments own preferred scheme, despite the fact that our dogs will probably be operating in countries outside the current borders of the EU.

What is more, this view is shared by Dr François Xavier Meslin, who is the Coordinator of the Animal and Food Related Public Health Risks Team of the World Health Organization. In a recent communication to us he has said;

"WHO has been trying to facilitate the movement of pet animals particularly
cats and dogs in between countries which have differing rabies situations.
In the early 90s the Expert Committee on Rabies, proposed special exemption
for guide dogs for the blind. OIE proposed different modalities from those
of WHO, these modalities have been adopted by many countries including the
UK.

WHO is supportive of your opinions re " sniffer" dogs and the same
conditions could apply for them as for guide dogs. Please contact me
further for any other information.

Once again, apologies for the delay.

Best Regards,

De F.-X. Meslin"

In 2001, a scheme will come into being which will bring Canada and North America into line with current UK quarantine regulations. Both these countries have at present got a substantial risk of rabies within the wildlife population. Consequently, all dogs in America and Canada are vaccinated against rabies from the time that they are puppies and to date there is no evidence of any pet dog suffering from that disease. Therefore, if these measures are enough to allow MAFF to adopt the position that both countries are going to be within acceptable safe boundaries, then surely this must lend even more weight to our declared position.

CANIS is asking for special exemption only in respect of those dogs that:

· Are sent by the UK Government to assist in humanitarian work in natural disasters.

· Are only out of the country for between 5 and 7 days

· Are under continuous and close control

· Will be unlikely to attend such events on a regular basis given their relative infrequency.

All other excursions abroad would of course have to fall within the Pet Passport Scheme protocols.

At the outset it was stated that the Kennedy Group advice was the basis on which the Government produced a safe and effective change in quarantine laws. The points we cite above have been provided by members of that same Kennedy Group, or by the WHO and all are agreed that our dogs present a significantly lower risk than do dogs now allowed to travel on the Pet Passport Scheme.

It would seem logical therefore, that since their recommendations have been fundamental to the policy making by MAFF and the Government in the creation of the new quarantine laws for the UK, then surely the same must apply in this instance.

We are therefore appealing to the Emergency Technical Rescue Institute to help us to achieve our special category status by making representation on our behalf, to the Government of the United Kingdom.

Lord Soulsby has already been making strenuous efforts in this regard and we would ask that, should IETRI feel they want to help us, that they contact him at the House of Lords in order to develop a consolidated approach.

May we thank you very sincerely for the interest you are taking in us. We look forward to your reply.