RESCUE dogs from Okehampton-based charity Rapid UK are being moved to Spain to avoid being 'penned up' in quarantine.
The rescue organisation's campaign to persuade MAFF to make a special exemption for rescue dogs failed and Rapid has said it no longer wants the prospect of six months' quarantine for the dogs every time they go on rescue work outside Europe.
The dogs, which are fully vaccinated and tested against rabies, will be able to move freely across all borders once in Spain.
Director of Rapid UK Graham Payne said in Spain the dogs would be able to run free between missions instead of being in the 'jail of quarantine'.
'The kennels our dogs stay in were excellent but we could not go on with a situation where every time the dogs went beyond Europe they spent the next six months penned up,' he said.
Rapid UK's most recent work with the rescue dogs was in the aftermath of the Turkey earthquake last year and in Colombia in 1998. On both occasions the dogs had to stay in quarantine kennels for six months on their return.
A Spanish property owned by a founder member of the charity will be the base for the rescue dogs in the future.