Lack of veterinarian stymies dog control program

The Dog Control Program of the Saipan Mayor’s Office is temporarily unable to respond to community requests concerning domestic or stray dogs up to Aug. 18 due to the lack of a veterinarian.

“There’s no doctor to administer the services for the program,” disclosed program director Ray B. Lizama to Saipan Tribune yesterday.

Dr. Ignacio Dela Cruz, the only government veterinarian on Saipan, recently resigned from his post as secretary of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Since then, Lizama said their office does not know if Dela Cruz will continue to provide veterinary services.

“The only thing I know is he resigned from DLNR,” said Lizama. “As far as still providing services on a professional level as a veterinarian, I don’t know. And if he is, I would like to ask him to call me. That’s one of the reasons why we suspended this. We don’t have a doctor.”

He added, “I would like to ask the public’s cooperation and understanding to try to see our side. There’s no doctor.”

Lizama maintained that the assigned government veterinarian “should make the effort” to help the dog control program since it’s a government program.

“It is a beneficial program for the community. This is one of the many concerns of the public,” he said.

Lizama noted, however, that their office tries to respond to “very urgent matters” such as dog attacks or dog biting incidents called in by community members.

“We have various complaints of dog attacks from different villages. …The one I’m very concerned about is dogs chasing tourists and residents. Just last week, four people were bitten by dogs,” he disclosed.

According to Lizama, they respond to these dog bite concerns by taking away the dog being complained of and bringing them to the dog transfer station in Chalan Kanoa. “We bring them to the kennels at our area where we store our animals, which is the transfer station,” he said.

“I kindly ask people to please, if you own a dog, put them on a leash so you don’t victimize anybody. And we encourage them to register their dogs,” he added.

Lizama also noted that they do not want to keep a lot of dogs at the transfer station.

“The whole point of not having too many dogs is because it costs a lot of money to feed these dogs every day. We cannot overwhelm ourselves. And there’s no space to put these dogs,” he explained.

At present, Lizama said they only keep stray dogs at the transfer station since the kennels for the dog pound in Lower Base have yet to be built pending an agreement between the Saipan Mayor’s Office and the Northern Marianas Trades Institute, which will build it.

Right now, he said, all 10 kennels at the transfer station are “all occupied.”

Once stray dogs are brought to the transfer station, Lizama said they prepare these dogs for adoption. That mainly involves cleaning up the dogs and feeding them.

He said they currently have seven puppies and six adult dogs, male and female, that are ready for adoption.

“They can call or email us if they are interested to adopt any of the dogs. They can also come down to the transfer station to check them out,” said Lizama.

For information, call the Saipan Mayor’s Office at 234-6208 or email dogcontrolprogram.mos2011@yahoo.com.