Pet owners get their dogs vaccinated during the free anti-rabies mass vaccination in Sibu Jaya yesterday.
SIBU: There was lukewarm response to the two-day free anti-rabies mass vaccination at Sibu Jaya, which ended yesterday. A total of 367 dogs were vaccinated when the exercise ended at 2pm yesterday, including 197 dogs which were vaccinated on Jan 20.
Assistant Minister of Housing and Public Health Dr Annuar Rapaee said the lukewarm response from pet owners could be due to lack of publicity and public ignorance on the deadly rabies disease.
On this, he believed that more effort is required to increase awareness among the public on the importance of getting their pet dogs vaccinated to prevent the spread of rabies.
“That is why members of the public will have to be reminded time and again. In this regard, the decision has been made to deliver pamphlets house-to-house to disseminate the information.
“We need to continuously emphasise to the public that this is no laughing matter and they should heed the advice as rabies is a deadly disease,” Dr Annuar, who is also Assistant Minister for Education and Technological Research, stressed.
The Nangka assemblyman added: “Although the risk for their pet dogs being infected with rabies is lower than the free-roaming dogs, there is no assurance that their pets will not get infected.
“That is why all pet dogs have to be vaccinated and stray dogs removed. This spells the urgency to continuously disseminate the information to the public about this free anti-rabies vaccination programme for dogs.” He also assured there were enough vaccines for the exercise.
Dr Annuar said the exercise targets to vaccinate 70 per cent of the estimated 35,000 dogs in Sibu Division within two weeks, while removal of strays from the street is on-going. Adding on, he assured that pet owners in Sibu Jaya need not worry about missing out the session as there will be other centres open in the next couple of weeks.
Towards this end, he also emphasised that pet dogs should be kept within the house compound at all times, especially one month after being vaccinated.
“This is because the vaccine only works after one month of injection,” Dr Annuar said.
The exercise, which started on Jan 20, runs until March 1. The next session will be at Durin Basketball Court on Jan 23 from 9am till 4pm. Members of the public can call 013-8077964 or 084-310808 to find out the exact location and dates for the free vaccination for their dogs.
Pet owners queue at the registration counter for the mass rabies vaccination in Sibu Jaya.
Pet owners get their dogs vaccinated during the free anti-rabies mass vaccination in Sibu Jaya yesterday.