Only 6,000 dogs are registered with city

The City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO) disclosed that more or less six thousand dogs are already registered with the city’s micro-chipping or dog tag modality as part of the documentation of pets under the city’s Responsible Pet Ownership ordinance.

CBAO officer-in-charge and Assistant City Veterinarian Dr. Silandro Bested stated that there is still a long way to go in the registration of dogs to establish a database of the real number of canine that are actually existing in the city to guide policy makers and decision makers in the crafting of appropriate programs, projects and activities for the welfare of the pets.

For the past several years, the CVAO was able to vaccinate 53,000 to 60,000 dogs in the city’s 128 barangays for a period of one year.

Bested disclosed that under this ordinance, there are 2 options that dog owners could select in the registration of their dogs with the CVAO which is either through micro-chipping or dog tag.

He disclosed that the CVAO continues to conduct aggressive information and education campaigns among the residents to convince them to have their pets registered under their chosen modality for the realization of the primary goals and objectives of the city’s Responsible Pet Ownership Ordinance as amended.

According to him, pet owners who opt to register their dogs via micro-chipping will be required to pay a higher registration fee while those who decide to avail of the dog tag modality will only pay P50 registration fee but they have the shoulder the cost of the dog tag that will be placed around their dog’s neck.

The assistant city veterinarian claimed that it would be best for pet owners to have their dogs registered with the CVAO to make it easier for the local government to detect the dogs that have already been vaccinated against rabies or easily identify the owner of the dogs that have bitten passersby or those that are stray animals.

On the other hand, the CVAO officer-in-charge stipulated that pet owners should ensure their dogs are confined in their residences to avoid being caught by the personnel of the dog pound and eventually pay the increased rate of P500 for every stray dog that had been brought to the city’s dog pound.

He emphasized that the CVAO is continuously implementing the vaccination of dogs against rabies to prevent the prevalence of rabies among dogs owned by residents which could probably cause the transmission of the same to individuals through animal bites that might compromise their health if not given the appropriate medical attention.

However, Bested admitted that the rabies cases in the city had been decreasing over the past several years where only 2 animal rabies cases were reported in the city last year compared to the double digit animal rabies cases that had been documented through the past years, thus, efforts are still being pursued to achieve the goal of being rabies free by 2030.

He warned that rabies inflicted on humans is hazardous. That is why part of preventing animal rabies is for the vaccination of the city’s animal population against the same. – Dexter A. See