Govt kills thousands of non rabid dogs yet

CVO: Pasonanca tops 36

barangays rabies-positive

The City Veterinary Office said that 36 of the 98 barangays in the city are rabies positive, meaning that there are confirmed rabies cases in these communities for the last four years or for calendar year 2002-2006.

The City Veterinary Office led by Dr. Alcadio B. Cavan ,Jr. together with Dr. Agbayani and other representative who conducted information campaign against rabies control and eradication in several barangays disclosed that among the barangays, Pasonanca also has the most number of rabies cases for the last four years.

Dr. Cavan said that rabies positive cases in the 36 barangays have become alarming as records showed that from January to June this year, there were seven (7) fatalities among humans that prompted the CVET office to intensify rabies control and eradication.

Under the City Ordinance NO. 241, the rabies control and eradication is being chaired by the Local Chief Executive with the different composition of members coming from the different line agencies.

There is also a penalty of P 2,500 under section 7 on City Pound Ordinance for pet owners whose dogs happens to bite others as well as the medical expenses that will be shouldered by the pet owners which is too high costing from P 20,000 to P26,000 for the complete treatment .

Dr. Cavan said that there is already a national law on Rabies where as the penalty is P 25,000 instead of the local ordinances that impose the penalty of only P 2,500.

It was also learned that in most cases rabies positive occurred within the city proper about 80% came from pet dogs while the remaining 20 % are bits from stray dogs.

The local ordinances prohibits pet owner to just leave their pets outside their backyard.(LMMES)