Tanods to help carry out drive vs stray dogs, rabies

By Jason B. Neola NAGA CITY --- The City Veterinary Office (CVO) is ending this year the Rabies Awareness Month, which is being observed in the month of March, with the conduct of community-based trainings that will intensify its campaign on stray dog elimination and rabies control. Held every Sunday, the trainings are being conducted with the members of the Barangay Tanod organizations in the city’s 27 barangays as participants. The village watchmen are being taught to catch dogs in the streets by way of trapping them with nets. “Our campaign on stray dog elimination in the villages is expected to get good results with the help of the members of barangay tanod organizations whom we can expect to respond quickly to emergency situations, especially to incidences of dog bites happen even at nighttime since they are already there in the area,” says CVO chief Junios Elad, who is a veterinary doctor. Elad explained that the number of individuals, especially children, bitten by dogs is high during summer as compared to other months of the year as there are more children who are on their vacation playing in the streets. “The entry of our indefatigable tanods in the campaign is just on time, now that the school days are drawing to a close,” he said. The training is being funded under the National Rabies Prevention and Control Program of the Department of Health, Dept. of Agriculture, Dept. of Interior and Local Government, and Dept. of Education wherein its secretaries and representatives have committed their respective agencies to launch concerted efforts in eliminating rabies in the country. Rabies, based on the provision of the memorandum of agreement entered into by and between the DOH regional office and the city government of Naga, remains to be the country’s public health problem as it is the most acutely fatal infection disease responsible for the death of 200-250 Filipinos every year.The CVO’s house to house vaccination will end on May 2017. The agreement facilitates the release of P360,000 from DOH-5 to the city government of Naga, from which the trainings in dog vaccination and other projects will also be sourced. Meanwhile, the city government thru the CVO is pushing for the realization of the plan to have each vaccinated dog appended with collar and tag that bears its name, number and place where the dog lives with its owners. The project includes the conduct of training for Barangay Animal Health/Welfare Officers.