Debut of Singapore's first ambassador Assistance Dog at K9Assistance’s inaugural Partners Appreciation Breakfast

1. At the inaugural Partners Appreciation Breakfast, K9Assistance debuted Singapore’s first Ambassador Assistance Dog, Sienna, which has been trained to demonstrate the various assistive tasks that different types of Assistance Dogs can do to help persons with disabilities overcome some of their daily challenges. Sienna will be instrumental in the next stage of K9Assistance’s outreach and educational efforts to demonstrate to different stakeholders the tangible benefits that Assistance Dogs bring to persons with disabilities. Currently, there are only nine accredited Assistance Dogs supporting the blind in Singapore.
2. To date, over 50 businesses from across industry sectors such as, banking, food services, healthcare, leisure retail, etc., have pledged their support to welcome Assistance Dogs teams onto their premises. These businesses can be identified by an ‘Assistance Dogs Welcome’ decal, displayed on their premises to show their support. They would also educate their frontline staff and customers about Assistance Dogs with a training deck from K9Assistance. K9Assistance is actively working on growing this community of businesses.
3. The event was graced by guest-of-honour, Mr Eric Chua, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). Speaking at the event, Mr Chua announced that Singapore will recognise Assistance Dogs that are trained to assist persons with physical disabilities, visual impairments and deaf and hard of hearing to mitigate impairments related to their disability. These Assistance Dogs will be allowed access into public spaces across Singapore, namely in licensed food retail establishments, public transport and public housing. He added that this whole-of-government effort to expand public access for Assistance Dogs will come into effect in phases from late 2024 onwards.
4. K9Assistance is thankful to MSF for bringing together representatives from various government agencies for this purpose, including the Animal & Veterinary Service, Housing & Development Board, Land Transport Authority, Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura, and Singapore Food Agency.
5. Mr Andrew Chew, K9Assistance Chairman said: “Today marks a momentous development for Assistance Dogs and inclusion for persons with disabilities in Singapore. K9Assistance is very grateful to MSF and the other government agencies for their support of our cause. They have been working closely with us to expand the access of Assistance Dogs in public places. We have every confidence that this people-public partnership would take inclusivity one step ahead. We are excited to place our first Assistance Dog soon.
6. “K9Assistance will continue to work with the government to explore further expansion of Assistance Dogs to include Autism Assistance Dogs, as it is our founding principle to provide Assistance Dogs that aligns with the definition of disabilities in Singapore, including the Physically disabled, D/deaf and hard of Hearing, Blind and Vision Impaired, and the Autistic,” added Mr Chew.
7. Over 80 persons attended the event, which included Ms Carrie Tan, Member of Parliament (MP) for Nee Soon GRC and Mr Ong Hua Han, Nominated MP, alongside representatives from the diplomatic, social services and business communities, as well as individual donors and supporters.
8. Ahead of the phased changes, K9Assistance will step up on advocating public access for Assistance Dogs via our Assistance Dog-Friendly Businesses (ADFB) initiative, aimed at engaging businesses and affirm their acceptance of Assistance Dogs onto their premises. K9Assistance also would be conducting briefings and training sessions for food and public transport operators and their frontline staff. It would also implement public communications campaigns for the various target audience groups and touchpoints to strengthen the broad-base support for our cause and to foster a more caring and inclusive society.

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About K9Assistance (Limited)K9Assistance was founded in 2020 to create awareness on the benefits that mobility assistance dogs, hearing dogs, seeing-eye dogs and autism assistance dogs could bring to persons with disabilities. As a charity, we aim to give the gift of dignity through accredited assistance dogs at no cost to persons with disabilities. We advocate for the use and acceptance of bona fide assistance dog teams to have access to public spaces across Singapore. Find out more at www.k9assistance.sg