Dogs which provide vital assistance to people with disabilities will be fitted with identification tags so they can easily be reunited with their owners in emergencies, Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye announced yesterday.
The initiative is being introduced as a response to the Christchurch earthquake, when there was uncertainty about the status of dogs at Civil Defence centres.
Now they will be identifiable as "certified disability-assist dogs" and will be able to remain with their owners.
"We want to make sure people have all the resources they need to get through. I can imagine being separated from your disability-assist dog would be very stressful in such a situation, so clear identification of these dogs should prevent that from happening."
The tags provide unique identification for each dog and link it to its owner and the organisation that certified it. The dogs are also micro-chipped.
