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Pangelinan: We are aggressively enforcing CNMI dog control law
Martin Pangelinan
Martin Pangelinan, the new manager of the Saipan Mayor’s Office Dog Control Program, says that he has started aggressively enforcing the regulation that requires dog owners to register their animals with the mayor’s office.
Part of that is doing outreach programs to inform the community that if their dogs are not registered, they will be impounded immediately, Pangelinan said in an interview.
“We are going to start enforcing the law a little bit more aggressively. We are going house to house and educating the public about the Dog Control Program and the public law that every dog in the CNMI must be registered,” he said. “When we start enforcing it, whatever dog that are out on the street, without a tag, we will impound and this is just for the safety of our community and the safety of our kids.”
Pangelinan said he wants to be a bit more forceful about dog registration to make it easier for him and his team to clear the streets of strays for the safety of children.
“I guess the biggest priority is the safety of the community and especially our kids when they’re walking on the streets. There’s a lot of stray dogs on the streets and we want them out. That’s why we would like the public to register their dogs so we can tell the difference,” he said.
Pangelinan, who took on the position last Oct. 1 following Spencer Marchadesch’s resignation, said that in order to manage a program like the Dog Control Program, you need to be more aggressive so the word really gets out there. Pangelinan is confident that he can effectively enforce this mandate.
“The last month and a half, it’s been going well. We’ve been going hard in our public outreach and it seems to be working. It’s going to take a little bit of time. We started off in Koblerville, headed through San Antonio, As Gonno, Dandan, and As Perdido. We worked toward San Vicente and we are currently in Papago. We’re getting out there,” he said.
Pangelinan said he estimates the completion of the outreach program in another two to three months.
Pangelinan is a former firefighter for about eight years before he took on the position of Dog Control Program manager.
