CVAO shares updates

10 February 2022 – The City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO) is urging the Summer Capital’s dog owners to have their pets registered as the city is in the process of developing a database for dog registration and rabies vaccination.

In the city rabies prevention and stray dog control committee meeting, Feb. 9, Dr. Gladys Bantog, CVAO Veterinarian III, said only 4,509 of an estimated 50,000 dogs in the city have been registered by their owners as of December 31 last year.

She cited city ordinance no. 19, series of 2021, or the Responsible Dog Ownership Ordinance of the City of Baguio that calls for mandatory dog registration for a fee of P50 covering the canine’s entire lifetime.

In terms of CVAO’s spaying and neutering activities of the city’s dog and cat population, Bantog said 906 dogs and cats were spayed and neutered in 2021 as compared to 559 in 2020 and 393 in 2019.

She said the city government continues to conduct spaying and neutering campaigns with the support of non-government organizations, volunteer veterinarians, and more.

Bantog also revealed that there is a decreasing trend in the number of stray dogs that are impounded in the city pound.

She said a total of 2,608 stray dogs were impounded last year as compared to 2,993 in 2020 and 3,300 in 2019. The city imposes an impounding fee of P500; a maintenance fee of P50 per day; and an adoption fee of P650.

For its 2022 targets, Bantog said CVAO aims to vaccinate 40,000 dogs and cats; register 20,000 dogs; impound 3,000 stray dogs; monitor all rabies cases in dogs; spay and neuter 1,000 dogs and cats. – Gaby B. Keith