KUCHING: Kuching MP Dr Kevin Yii yesterday urged the state government to expedite the tabling of a Bill in the State Legislative Assembly to enable the monitoring of dog ownership through pet microchip implants.
In a press statement, Dr Yii pointed out that according to Local Government and Housing Minister Dr Sim Kui Hian, such Bill was supposed to be tabled in July 2018. But it was delayed to November 2018 because there were other more urgent matters such as the Native Customary Rights (NCR) land issue that had to be introduced.
However, in the November Legislative Assembly sitting and until now, no such Bill had been introduced.
“This clearly shows the lack of urgency shown by the state government to properly deal with the outbreak which was first detected in July, 2017.
“At that time, there were only five villages in Serian that were declared as rabies-infected areas but since then, the outbreak has spread to many different places.
“Currently, there are 61 rabies-affected areas across the state except Limbang division and the epidemic has so far claimed 16 human lives,” said Dr Yii.
He added he had been receiving multiple feedbacks recently from different stakeholders that the dumping of dogs and even cats dumping had increased in many areas around Kuching.
This, he said, would increase the risk of more dogs being infected and spreading the disease to humans.
“Such acts could be due to the lack of awareness by pet owners themselves including the lack of understanding on the process of dog licence registration by the local councils.”
Dr Yii added that last year, it was announced that all dog licensing and control by-law would come into effect on December 1, 2018 .
From feedback, he said the registration process might be complicated and deter many pet owners from registering their dogs.
“The much needed legislation for micro-chipping should not be delayed any longer. It is important especially to address the issue of dumping of pets including dogs and even cats by irresponsible owners,” Dr Yii added.
He also urged the people to be vigilant themselves and ensure their pets were vaccinated to prevent them from contracting rabies.
