File photo for illustration purposes
KUCHING: A mopping up exercise to vaccinate dogs that were missed in previous anti-rabies operations including the targeted removal of more strays will be held next year.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah said in six operations so far, the vaccination success rate had only accounted for 61.49 per cent of the estimated 200,000 dogs.
Similarly, he added that only 7,584 stray dogs plus 73 stray cats had been removed.
He said this after a meeting at Wisma Bapa Malaysia here today to fine-tune preparations for the next operation, the seventh in a series.
Scheduled to be held from Oct 4 to 15, the operation will cover Dalat, Matu Daro, Mukah, Bintulu, Tatau and Belaga districts.
“We have two main objectives: to achieve a 100 per cent dog vaccination success rate and the targeted removal of stray dogs.
“Apparently, we have not been able to achieve both objectives. As such, beginning next year there will be the Vaccination 2020 programme which is a mopping up operations to ensure we will bring up our vaccination success rate to 70 per cent ,” he said.
“We will also be collecting data on dogs kept as pets as we aim to improve owners’ pet management.
“I hope the the respective councils will enforce whatever regulations available on keeping pets,” he asserted.
Uggah, who is also the chairman of the State Disaster Management Committee (JPBN) said he was “puzzled” by the high incidence of dog bite cases in the state.
“According to official figures on the average, there are about 300 dog bite cases per week. I am wondering whether the high figures is peculiar to the state – perhaps the Health Department can enlighten us on this.”
Meanwhile Uggah was happy to note that now many NGOs and even opposition political parties had begin to give their support to the operation, but remarked that there were some people who were still skeptical and prejudiced.
“Actually, our biggest problem is the cross movement of dogs at our borders. We cannot monitor nor control this effectively given our very long borders,” he added.
He also said the eighth operation to cover Miri Division would be the last.
Present at the meeting were Local Government and Housing Minister Prof Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian, State Security and Enforcement Unit director Dato Dr Chai Khin Chung, State Veterinary Services Department director Dr Apdrian Susin Ambud and DCP Datuk Dev Kumar who represented the state police commissioner.