HDB flat owners can adopt retired sniffer dogs under pilot scheme
HDB flat owners can adopt retired sniffer dogs under pilot scheme
Under a new one-year scheme, members of the public can now adopt retired sniffer dogs from military, police and civil defence units and rehome them in Housing Board flats, the authorities said in a joint statement yesterday.
This scheme comes under Project Adore, launched in 2012 with the intent of assessing the acceptance of mixed-breed dogs in HDB estates with proper safeguards in place.
The project is implemented by five animal welfare groups - Action for Singapore Dogs, SOSD, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Exclusively Mongrels and Causes for Animals.
The public will be able to adopt retired dogs from the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defence Force K-9 units and the SAF Military Working Dog Unit. This will widen the pool of potential adopters.
This pilot expansion will be subject to the same conditions in place for Project Adore.
These include the screening of potential adopters, a framework to encourage community acceptance of the dogs such as setting up mediation channels for disputes and measures to prevent abandonment of the dogs through microchipping.
Previously, under another pilot launched in June last year, dog handlers from the relevant units were allowed to adopt and rehome the retired canines in their flats. The scheme has helped rehome 14 sniffer dogs. This policy will be made permanent from tomorrow.
Prior to that, the three units worked closely with animal welfare groups to rehome retired dogs, mostly in private residences.
Dogs not rehomed are taken care of by the units until the natural end of their lives.
Project Adore has been well received since its launch, said the joint statement by the Ministries of National Development, Home Affairs and Defence.
Under the project, HDB flat owners can adopt local mixed breed dogs weighing up to 15kg and 50cm tall, a slight increase from the allowed toy breeds.
Adopters are allowed one dog a flat and have to abide by stringent ownership conditions.
New owners must enrol their dogs for obedience training courses and sign a Code of Responsible Behaviour, which includes ensuring their dogs do not cause nuisances to neighbours.
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