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Over 400 dogs are registered
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Posted on Dec 27 2019
Over 400 dogs have been registered with the Saipan Mayor Office the past two and a half months, making it the highest number of dogs registered in that short amount of time, according to Dog Control Program manager Martin Pangelinan.
“I don’t think we were enforcing [the law requiring the registration of dogs] enough. So…I saw that we could do a little better,” he said.
Pangelinan took the helm of Dog Control Program manager last Oct. 1. Before that, only about 175 dogs have been officially registered. In as little as two and a half months, over 450 dogs have been registered in the Dog Control Program system.
The program, created in 2001, has a system where a registered dog has the prt’s name, owner’s name, and cell phone number so in case they do come across a dog and they see that the dog has a tag, it’s easy for them to go in their system and see who the owner is, then they give them a call and they’re aware that their dog is in the program’s possession.
The two main priorities that Pangelinan and his staff have is that keeping villages safe enough so that parents and their children can walk around without having being afraid of a stray dog attacking them and for every dog on island to be registered.
“The guys have been aggressively going throughout the island. We’re taking it very slow, but we will get to where we want to be. It could be in a few months or even years,” Pangelinan said.
Pangelinan clarified that they do not put down every dog or every stray dog they come across.
“The dogs that have potential for adoption we give them up for adoption. So, it’s really up to the manager’s discretion,” said Pangelinan. “If the dog is ill or on the verge of dying, or has some kind of disease, those are the dogs that we put down.”
“We would like to educate the community and make sure that everyone is aware of the public law. If they can just hear us out and…give us a chance to talk, that would be great.” he said.
For more information about how you can get your dog registered, contact (670) 234-6208 or visit www.saipanmayor.net. (Justine Nauta)
