KUCHING: The Council of the City of Kuching South (MBKS) assured that actions will be taken on stray dogs especially during this ‘rabies crisis‘ along with the ongoing instructions from the State Disaster Committee/Health Ministry for Councils like MBKS to catch these stray dogs.
Mayor of MBKS, Dato James Chan Khay Syn said that there exist groups of ‘Dog lovers/sympathisers’ who insisted that stray dogs which have been immunised and identified by a collar should not be touched by Councils Dogs Catching Unit Teams as they would criticise the Councils/MBKS Teams on social networking sites if they were seen catching the collared stray dogs.
However, should there be complaints on nuisance caused by stray dogs, whether or not the dogs are privately-owned or immunised with collared tags, MBKS would certainly take action to resolve the problems for the safety of the public.
“Actually, the Ministry of Local Government and Housing (Health Unit) has circulated pamphlets to almost all Kuching households that all pets should always be kept inside the house or property compound.
“These warnings are also widely published in newspapers and broadcasted on radios. MBKS as a responsible City Council will always act upon public and community interest as well as for safety and health concerns,” stressed Chan.
The Mayor was asked on whether action would be taken on stray dogs within its areas such as Abell Road area because there were complaints by the public being chased by stray dogs and causing some motorcycle incidents. The stray dogs would always be seen roaming in groups in the evening.
Chan replied that it was difficult to have zero stray dogs as the stray dogs resulted from people’s doings as the animals may initially be raised as pet dogs and after multiple births, the dogs may have been released into the wild and thus become stray dogs.
He added that even though the local authorities may be able to remove the stray dogs, there would be others being released at various places and because some people like them, the dogs would remain on the streets.
On the number of dog licences, a total of 393 dog licences have been issued by MBKS from January to May this year.
Chan disclosed that for the whole of last year, a total of 897 dog licences were issued.
He added that throughout 2017, a total of 1,054 stray dogs were caught while as of June 18, 2018, a total of 539 dogs had been caught.
