SEPANG: Two dogs from the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department's (JBPM) Detection Dog Unit (K9) were flown to Turkey to participate in the search and rescue (SAR) mission for earthquake victims in that country.

The two dogs, known as Frankie and Dentie, are the same dogs involved in the SAR mission following the landslide tragedy at the Batang Kali campsite last December.

According to the Commander of the Malaysian Tactical Rescue Operations (STORM) Special Team of the Fire and Rescue Department, Senior Fire Chief I Ismail Abdul Ghani, the two dogs had no problems boarding the plane and had passed the screening.

"There is no problem for us to fly these dogs because this (SAR) is also part of their training."

"What is important is that these (dogs) must pass a health screening and must have approval from Maqis (Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services Department) to be taken out," he said. He was met during the departure session of the second group of the Malaysian Special Search and Rescue Team (SMART) to Turkiye at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) tonight.

Commenting further, Ismail said that both dogs involved do indeed have expertise in SAR missions as a result of full-time training. "This dog is indeed trained around the clock and its expertise is for SAR... indeed, its expertise is in finding victims who are alive or dead.

"We brought in K9 as an additional effort and this is the same mission as in Batang Kali and we consider these (K9 dogs) to be among the important subjects for tracing the location of the victim," he explained. It is understood that Dentie and Frankie were each assigned for 14 days for the SAR mission in Turkiye.

Previously, the K9 Unit received attention from many parties following its excellent performance during the SAR mission in Batang Kali when it successfully recovered many bodies of buried victims.