Turkey-Syria quake: Hong Kong rescue dogs brave tough conditions to find survivors amid bricks and concrete
- Springer spaniels Umi and Twix get wiped down after each mission but cannot shower because it is too cold in Turkey
- Dogs have helped 59-strong team rescue four people since they arrived in the country a week ago
Walking in narrow passages of rubble and using their sense of smell to search for survivors while trying to keep warm in cold weather in a quake-stricken area of Turkey were some of the things two little search and rescue dogs from Hong Kong experienced in the first week of their mission.
Springer spaniels Umi and Twix were put on a rescue mission last Wednesday alongside their 59 human teammates after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated parts of southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday, causing more than 41,000 deaths in a week.
Security Bureau footage showed the two dogs searching for survivors in collapsed buildings, using their sense of smell. Their trainers accompanied them.
Their handlers would clean them with non-alcoholic wipes after each search and rescue mission, but they could not take showers like they usually did in Hong Kong because it was too cold in Turkey.
Twix, who generally eats two meals a day, consumed more food in the past week to tackle the cold weather and the complicated mission. The 20-month-old previously took part in an operation in Hong Kong last September where three men died after a crane tower collapsed on Anderson Road.
Brown-and-white Umi, meanwhile, also looked excited in the video, as the bureau mentioned he had spent his second birthday in the quake-stricken area on Monday.
Umi is one of six springer spaniel puppies jointly bred under the first-ever cooperation between customs and the Fire Services Department. He was born on February 12, 2021, the first day of Lunar New Year, with his five siblings at the Breeding Centre of the Customs Canine Force at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge base.
