Drury Wee shakes hands with Dr Cheong after getting her first dose of the vaccine.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) will deliver dog catching nets to the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) and Kuching South City Council (MBKS).
SSPCA president Datin Dona Drury Wee said the society is working closely with the authorities to ensure more humane handling of dogs during the current anti-rabies drive.
“The Department of Veterinary Services has ordered nine dog-catching nets from us, and I will be delivering to them next week. MBKS has also ordered four dog catching nets from us, I should be able to deliver to them tomorrow (today).
“They are changing their methods of catching the animals. MBKS will no longer be using the loop, and adapt as according to international guidelines. These are some of the ways that we are hoping to educate the enforcers as of how to do this more humanely, in a way that the public don’t get upset,” she said in an interview yesterday.
Drury Wee said SSPCA understands the need for DVS and local councils to catch and check dogs for test sampling once there is a rabies positive animal found in an area. She said this is part of preventive measures taken by the government to fight the spread of rabies.
“The government is doing the best they can. To date, I think they have vaccinated about 18,000 animals. I don’t think you see that happening in other parts (of the country).
“We’re continually trying to convince them that they must start to vaccinate the strays. I have some information on previous studies that was done in Bali, so we’re trying to convince the government to follow and that vaccination of the strays is the next step that they really must be looking at,” she said.
Drury Wee also advised owners to keep their pets within house compounds, while animal lovers also need to confine strays that they wish to protect.
On another matter, Drury Wee said she and other SSPCA staff had gone to the DVS laboratory at Jalan Datuk Mohd Musa for the rabies vaccine as they are among frontliners in the effort to contain the spread of rabies in Sarawak.
She said the government is giving the vaccination to SSPCA and also Save Our Strays (SOS) volunteers involved in the handling of the animals.
“I’m coming for the first jab. There is a series of three jabs that the frontliners must get to build up their immunity.
“I advise those who have been bitten since April 1, with bites that broke the skin, to get vaccinated,” she said.
Meanwhile, head of the Public Health Section in the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, Dr Cheong Yaw Liang, said 158 persons were vaccinated yesterday.