Charco was one of seven dogs used in the rescue operation in Algeria

Charco, a black labrador who is a fully trained rescue dog, has not been allowed home over fears of rabies.

He is being held in quarantine alongside other search dogs and will be away from his owner and handler Neil Powell for six months.

"He is one of seven who are in this position and the thing is that all of these dogs have been vaccinated against rabies, they are all microchipped and they are all very carefully monitored when they are working and when they are not working," said Mr Powell.

Charco and Neil, who are from Newcastle, went to Algeria last week to help in the rescue effort following a devastating earthquake which killed more than 2,000 people and injured 9,000.

The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.7 on the Richter scale, was felt as far away as Spain.

Our dogs are effectively 300 times safer than the dogs currently travelling on the pet passport scheme Neil Powell

Charco and his handler were based 30 miles from Algiers and were there for four days as part of a specialist search dogs group called Canis.

A team of six other dogs and trainers from England have returned to the UK but the dogs are being held in quarantine at Manchester Airport.

The dogs were given rabies shots before leaving on the mission and their handlers have criticised the decision to hold the animals in quarantine.

The move has also been criticised because in the event of a terror strike, seven of the nine fully trained sniffer dogs in the UK will be out of action.

"With the heightened security risk in the UK at the minute we have effectively no search dogs to look for people who might become entrapped in collapsed buildings and that is a nightmare scenario," said Mr Powell.

"There is an exception made for guide dogs for the blind who are free to travel around the world.

"The dogs that were there with us were from all over Europe and are going home to their own countries.

"Dogs from the UK, who are free to travel on the pet passport scheme may well encounter these dogs, and then come home having been bitten by them possibly, so that risk is still there."

The Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs said it sympathised with the plight of the dogs.

Officials said Algeria had high levels of rabies and unless scientific advice changes there could be no special exemption for the dogs.

However, Mr Powell claims that the risk of the dogs carrying the rabies virus was "tiny".

"We have checked with the World Health Organisation and with the people who designed the pet passport scheme and they say that our dogs are effectively 300 times safer than the dogs currently travelling on the pet passport scheme because of the treatment they have had," he said.