To ensure sterilization and proper management of the unsterilized dogs in the district, Tsirang signed a roadmap with the Livestock Department earlier this week. The district sterilized more than 1,600 dogs during a mass dog sterilization and vaccination programme recently. The remaining 270 dogs could not be sterilized either for being too young for sterilization or for being located in remote areas.
The roadmap will aim to control the dog population by maintaining less than five per cent of unsterilized dogs in the district. It will also create awareness on responsible pet ownership to reduce the free-roaming dog population through enhanced animal birth control programme and adoption.
“We carry out the sterilization programme as much as possible so that we achieve at least 95 per cent coverage. And in the following years, it becomes the responsibility of the dzongkhag livestock sector to manage this remaining five per cent,” said Dr R.B Gurung, the Programme Director of the National Centre for Animal Health.
“Most people in Tsirang have been taking care of their pet dogs seriously. Henceforth, the district administration will support them by allocating a certain portion of the dzongkhag budget annually to manage the dog population. And looking at the number of unsterilized dogs, it is not a problem for us since on average each gewog has only around 20 unsterilized dogs,” said Pema, the Tsirang Dzongda.
The roadmap will help Tsirang achieve the vision of zero free-roaming dogs, rabies elimination in humans and a hundred per cent responsible pet ownership. The livestock officials said 75 per cent of dogs in the district are owned as pets.
Pema Tshewang, Tsirang
