KUCHING: The Sarawak Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) and the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) Kuching have urged members of the public who owns a pet that was vaccinated a year ago to vaccinate their pets again as it needs to be done annually. DVS visited SSPCA at Kota Sentosa here yesterday to re-vaccinate the dogs as they did last year in July.
In a press statement by DVS officer Dr Nicholas Jenek, a pet which has been vaccinated a year ago has to be vaccinated again as the first vaccination may not be sufficient to prevent rabies virus. “Since the positive cases of the virus in Serian has decreased, Kuching now has the most cases of rabies with 166 positive cases for rabies as of July,” he said.
He also urged members of the public to avoid provoking the animals in order to prevent from getting bitten which could pass the rabies virus. He added that it was not just the stray dogs that bite but also pets which were now known to be able to spread the virus.
“If anyone is bitten, they must be treated immediately to prevent the rabies virus from spreading in the vital parts of the person’s body,” he said.
SSPCA and DVS urged pet owners to keep their vaccinated pets in their compound to prevent them from roaming around and coming into contact with other animals which have yet to be vaccinated. President of SSPCA, Datin Dona Drury Wee added that when they collaborated with the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, and DVS on the house-to-house project to spread awareness on the virus, the response was of intolerance as members of the public knew that they need to get their pets vaccinated.
According to Dr Nicholas and Dona, Kuching will be able to achieve rabies-free status in the year 2020, but without the cooperation from the public, the city would only be rabies-free by 2025. Members of the public are urged to cooperate with SSPCA, DVS, Save Our Strays (SOS) Kuching and the government to help eradicate rabies virus from Kuching.
