from the column of Joe Espiritu: View From The TopThe anti rabies campaign has started in some places. An information drive is on.
Dog owners are listed and told that registration fees will be collected, dogs are to be vaccinated and confined. Unregistered canines are to be impounded and if not redeemed, will be destroyed. Some owners are willing to comply but most objects to the rules. The canine pets had grown up in he streets and confining them would generate enough noise to irritate the nerves.
At any rate, a pack of dogs, like some candidates, can be a nuisance. Loose dogs tend to lie peacefully in the streets or doorways. Only the aggressive ones rouse themselves to make strangers aware of their presence, even biting them sometimes. When a strange dog passes, even the most peaceful one dispute its passage. Neighborhood mutts gang up on it and either a fight ensues or a pursuit occurs. The worst is when a female dog is in heat; that is, it is ready to mate.
She does not have to advertise. All the dogs in the vicinity will know and an intense competition for favors is on. Fights go on day and night until the female is not longer is in heat. The din is terrific. This will never happen if the dogs are confined.
After the information dissemination, what? Information drive is not enough.
Admonitions enter one ear and goes out the other without making a detour to the brain. All dogs are to be rounded up but where will they be confined? The barangay or town does not have impounding facilities like chase trucks, dog pounds and trained personnel. Nor do the LGUs have budgets for those operations.
It is impractical for a rural LGU to maintain a section to attain to dogs and impounding since activities are seasonal at the least. Besides populated areas where dogs can be found are far between.
The best thing perhaps for a rural LGU is to conduct an intensive impounding campaign only once, then impose heavy registration fees so only seriously concerned owners are allowed to posses dogs as pets or guards and impose confiscatory impounding fees to compel owners to confine their animals. Owners of rabid dogs must by law or ordinance pay for all medications incurred by victims, animal autopsy and heavy fines. All unredeemed dogs are to be killed by euthanasia. That is if Tanasia can be persuaded to come home from Manila where she is a maid there to kill the dogs.
If a dog campaign is to be sustained, it may be suggested that two or three municipalities will pool their resources to construct a dog impounding facility. Or with provincial aid and supervision, district dog pounds are to be maintained. The campaign must start from the barangays, from the outlying ones to the downtown areas.
Perhaps the best time to start an anti rabies campaign will be at the end of February, which is the start of the summer season. That is the time when dogs start to go mad. The campaign is to end when the rains start. Hydrophobic dogs tend to stay indoors in wet seasons and those who are likely to be bitten are their owners and that serves them right for skimping on rabies immunization.
Another source of funds may be from the tourism budget. No tourist will try sightseeing in even the most attractive spots menaced by rabid dogs. News of a tourist bitten by even a sane dog would be a turn off. Bohol is touted as one of the most sought out tourist destination but nobody not even the natives relish the sport of hydrophobic dog watching.
(Bohol Sunday Post, June 17, 2007)Linkback:
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