KOTA KINABALU: The Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) is looking to introduce new rules for dog owners amid growing concerns over the population of stray dogs in the city.It is considering amending bylaws in order to set guidelines limiting the number of dogs that people can keep as pets at their premises.
Mayor Datuk Noorliza Awang Alip said at present, one bylaw, which has not been changed since 1963, limited a person to only two canines on their property.
“But go around KK and see if that is true. (Some owners) have four to five dogs.
“So, at the end of the day, we need to look at the space that a person has (his premises).
“Secondly, the rules state that dogs are to only be fitted with steel tags but some people have started using chips.
“But (questions like) who will instal the chips and how much is it going to cost us (will arise). So, we need to do further studies on this,” she told reporters after a DBKK gathering with the media here yesterday.
She said that a meeting between DBKK, dog lovers and non-governmental organisations on June 14 had discussed these matters.
It was previously reported that DBKK and stakeholders at the meeting had agreed on several proposals to better deal with the issue of stray dogs around the city.
Among the short-term solutions were holding awareness campaigns and operations to get pets licensed, organising dog adoption campaigns and having DBKK work with NGOs for the adoption and treatment of injured or ill strays.
Other measures were conducting workshops to educate the public, especially pet owners, on the care and welfare of dogs, as well as having integrated collaborations to vaccinate and neuter strays.
The meeting and subsequent agreement to these proposals were made following recent controversies on the stray management strategies taken by DBKK dog catchers, whereby a “put to sleep” measure would be implemented for unclaimed dogs within a period of time.
The meeting was attended by, among others, Noorliza, vets, management corporations, and representatives of villages and residential areas.
On putting captured stray dogs to sleep, Noorliza said they had yet to implement such measures on any canine they caught, although the law provides for such a so- lution to control the stray dog population.
“But I have to be honest with you – our pound can only accommodate 30 dogs so I can’t be ambitious by saying we want to take in as many dogs as we want.
“Our new SOP (standard operating procedure) allows us to keep captured dogs for seven days so that the owner can claim them and another seven days for adoption if no one comes to claim the dogs.
“I have told my staff to put up adoption advertisements and we will only put them to sleep if no one comes to claim the dogs.
“So far, we have not put any (dogs) to sleep but if concerned citizens say they don’t want this, then come to us and adopt the dogs,” Noorliza said.
