BAGUIO CITY– The City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO) will intensify the ongoing program of the city government for the micro-chipping of dogs in the city’s 128 barangays as part of the overall plan of monitoring the status of vaccination and the presence of stray dogs in the barangays.
City Veterinarian Dr. Brigit Piok said that based on initial data, only a few hundreds of dogs in the city have been provided with micro-chips compared to the over 40,000 dogs which estimated to be present in the city’s barangays.
She added that the CVAO is awaiting the enactment of an ordinance mandating the owners of dogs to have their pets provided with micro-chips to help in monitoring the status of vaccination of the said animals as well as ensure the proper identification of the owner of the dog once caught by the city’s dog pound personnel.
Earlier, the city government embarked on the micro-chipping of dogs in the city as part of the efforts to reduce the presence of stray dogs in the barangays and reduce the rabies cases caused by rabid dogs.
According to her, barangays are already equipped with scanners that could decode the micro-chips, thus, the owners of stray dogs with micro-chips could easily be identified through the scanners.
Piok disclosed that included in the contents of the micro-chips for dogs are the name of the dog, name of the owner, address of the owner, the 15-digit number dedicated for the animal, vaccination records among others.
She claimed the CVAO will continue to intensify its information education campaign in the different barangays to convince more dog owners to allow their pets to be provided with the state-of-the-art micro-chips considering its expected significant contribution in the efforts of the city government to reduce the presence of stray animals in the barangays and ensure the immediate identification of the owner of the caught stray dogs.
The city government department head asserted the city remains steadfast in the implementation of micro-chipping of dogs in the different barangays because the same is seen to effectively and efficiently help in addressing the long-time problem on the proliferation of stray dogs and the difficulty of identifying the owners of stray dogs that are caught by the personnel of the dog pound that roam around the city daily.
Aside from the visitations done in the different barangays for the dissemination of the city government’s programs and projects on responsible pet ownership, CVAO personnel are also actively involve in the implementation of the massive anti-rabies vaccination and the provision of micro-chips to interested pet owners for the realization of the micro-chipping of the dogs for easier monitoring and surveillance of the same.
The CVAO recently provided the different barangays with the schedule of the conduct of anti-rabies vaccination in the different barangays.
By Dexter A. See