Two Essex MPs have called for changes to quarantine laws after a search and rescue dog was locked up on its return from an earthquake zone.Wait, what…?
Darcy, who could find survivors in the aftermath of a UK terrorist attack, was impounded for six months on Thursday after returning from Indonesia.
She is the only search and rescue dog with Essex fire service.So if a rescue dog is needed in Essex tomorrow, tough luck!
Colchester MP Bob Russell and Angela Smith, MP for Basildon, have called on the government to review the law.Good luck with that, but this shouldn’t have arisen…
Mr Russell has tabled a motion calling for rescue dogs to be exempt from "antiquated" quarantine laws, while Ms Smith has promised to take up Darcy's case with Defra, the Government department responsible for quarantine laws.
Chief Fire Officer for Essex, David Johnson, said Darcy would be able to put the same skills to use in the aftermath of any terrorist attack in the UK.Questions could be asked, Mr Johnson, why (knowing this) you agreed to send a UK resource out of the country in the first place?
"The Government invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in creating a search and rescue capability in Essex to serve the region if terrorists attack.
"But at the same time they let a vital part of this resource be locked away for six months."
I’m all for compassion but it should never, ever be at the expense of our own needs.
And it’s not just one dog affected:
One other UK rescue dog, one of two available to the fire service in Kent, is also in quarantine following its return from Indonesia.So now the nearest county to Essex has had its resources halved?
This is utter madness.
Darcy has been inoculated against rabies, and received a booster immediately before she left for Indonesia, he added.Is this another piece of Euro madness, then?
"Dogs can also be tested for the disease so there is no danger that she could possibly be bringing rabies back to the UK," he said.
Oh, no. This one’s uniquely English:
A spokesman for Essex Fire and Rescue Service said no other European countries impose quarantine on their rescue dogs.Then why not say ‘We’ll sit the next one out, thanks’ and let Europe pick up the slack..?
10 comments:
Whilst I believe that a rabies vaccination should be standard, fact is that the vaccination does not always prevent infection.
All it takes is a well-placed rat bite and some bad luck, and DEFRA will be culling people's pets and livestock across the entire country on huge pyres (remember FMD?), because nothing in the UK is inoculated and places like London are crawling with foxes, just to make things, umm.. interesting.
In fact, it's amazing that the UK got away so far with their crazy rabies (non)policies.
Don't get this. This happened a few years ago with some other UK SAR dogs, Army I think, sent to help at an earthquake site for a week or so and quarantined when they got back. Didn't they learn anything then? Uhm, why am I even asking? Course not.
Pick up the slack - how?
Fat Hen, I think you missed the point. The fire and rescue service sent the dog abroad knowing it would be subject to rabies laws. So they chose to risk a six month period with no dog to be used in Essex, in order to help in Indonesia. I'm with JuliaM on this one.
Charity in this instance should really begin at home. Not that the conditions in Indonesia were not bad, but because in helping them we've cut our nose off to spite our face.
adam:
I totally agree with JuliaM too -- the UK has so little itself and it's time that other countries step forward instead of always the west, but... I also agree with the anal quarantine laws for as long as the UK does not bother to vaccinate.
Making an exception for any creature for whatever reason is crazy, especially after you've seen what DEFRA has planned in the event of rabies hitting the UK (basically no warm blooded animal in England will survive the cull, there is no appeal, your pooch/moggie/bunny/rare breed animal etc will be summarily shot and that is it, no compensation either)
Btw, only one rescue dog for Essex is as good as no dog anyway, if you have (say) a building collapse, you'd need teams of dogs because they only are good for a short while before they need rest and can't be overworked either. So the entire trip was a photo-op and Essex is without cover, with or without the one measly token rescue dog they sport.
And Sarko's refusing to send more Frog troops to Talibanland, because it's dangerous.
Gordon sends another 500 targets
"Whilst I believe that a rabies vaccination should be standard, fact is that the vaccination does not always prevent infection."
No, it doesn't. But then, all the more reason not to risk a British resource.
"Don't get this. This happened a few years ago with some other UK SAR dogs, Army I think, sent to help at an earthquake site for a week or so and quarantined when they got back. Didn't they learn anything then?"
Nope!
Or, if they did, some glory-hound (heh..!) decided that the need to get his picture in the paper and a tick in the 'global compassion' box was greater than the need for the UK to retain its expensive and scarce resource for our own needs.
"Pick up the slack - how?"
Let the EU send their dogs instead - they are already a rabies-endemic continent, unlike us.
"Charity in this instance should really begin at home. Not that the conditions in Indonesia were not bad, but because in helping them we've cut our nose off to spite our face."
Indeed. And there's every indication we'll do it again, too.
"Making an exception for any creature for whatever reason is crazy, especially after you've seen what DEFRA has planned in the event of rabies hitting the UK (basically no warm blooded animal in England will survive the cull, there is no appeal, your pooch/moggie/bunny/rare breed animal etc will be summarily shot and that is it, no compensation either)"
Should that happen (I've no doubt it's what the hopeless, hapless DEFRA have planned - nothing would surprise me about that mob), then I think we'd see blood on the streets. Not all animal, either...
Actually, I'm pretty surprised that none of the farmers in the FMD outbreak turned their guns on the men from the Ministry.
"Btw, only one rescue dog for Essex is as good as no dog anyway, if you have (say) a building collapse, you'd need teams of dogs because they only are good for a short while before they need rest and can't be overworked either. So the entire trip was a photo-op and Essex is without cover..."
Cheers for confirming my usual outlook concerning government cock-ups - it's always just that little bit worse than you think..! :)
"And Sarko's refusing to send more Frog troops to Talibanland, because it's dangerous.
Gordon sends another 500 targets"
Naturally - don't you know there's a war on?
Sorry, what was I thinking - don't you know there's a General Election on...soon?
I live in a country which is not free from rabies. No-one dies of rabies here. To die of rabies it is necessary that you either be deeply stupid or deeply poor. If the DEFRA answer to a rabies outbreak in the UK were to kill every family pet in the country then it would not merely be likely but desirable that government employees die, and in large numbers. Because if they took it upon themselves to enact such a draconian policy in response to such a trivial problem (rabies is horrendous, but it only kills a few tens of thousands of people a year, all of them in dire shitholes where children still die of diarrhoea or measles) then they would have shown themselves to be dangerously unhinged, and meting out widespread death to people like that is necessary before they start in on humans.
Short version: you try to kill my (non-rabid) dog, I gut you.
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