Pet dogs which are seen roaming outside of the compound of its owners is considered astray animals.
This was the assessment of the City Veterinarian Office, under Dr. Flosie Decena, who disclosed that pet owners tend to react strongly when personnel of the City Pound do their jobs.
“Responsible pet owners should chain or house their dogs,” she said and added that they tend to reason out with city pound employees when they are caught outside of their compounds.
“More often than not, they (pet owners) reason out that they let the dog outside to urinate or bowel-movement,” Decena said in the vernacular and added that there is a clear violation of city ordinance. “In fact, they cannot even catch their own dogs when we vaccinate their pets in their own homes, our personnel let the catching.”
A present, an average of 3 to 4 dogs are impounded daily. Penalty fees for impounded dogs have also been hiked to P400 from an initial of P100 and given a period of three days to redeem their pets. “Those caught with deceases or with skin-infections are not usually redeemed,” she added and taken at the sanitary landfill for mercy-killing.
She, however, lamented that there is lack of personnel in the city pound, two regulars and a casual, who usually roam around once a week in one barangay with only a tricycle for a service vehicle.
Las February, over 335 dogs was vaccinated in the year-round anti-rabies vaccination program. It was learned that for a lifetime immunity of dogs to rabies, a vaccination of three consecutive years is needed.
Except for Barangay Catbangen, all 58 barangays in the city is rabies-free at present, based in a recent analysis of the Regional Animal Decease Diagnostic Laboratory.
On the city slaughterhouse, Decena said that meat inspection is strictly implemented and that totally no chance for “double-dead” meat sold at the wet market. |
