A report from the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office Dog Control Program shows that a total of 1,165 dogs have been tagged or registered in five different precincts from June 6 through Aug. 19.<\/p>\n
Of the five precincts, Precinct 3 posted the highest number of registered dogs with 470. Precinct 3 is composed of the villages of Garapan, Navy Hill, Chinatown, San Jose, Chalan Laulau, Gualo Rai, and Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
Precinct 1 had a record of 366 registered dogs, Precinct 2 had 146, Precinct 4 had 98, and Precinct 5 had 85. <\/p>\n
The report also showed that 245 dogs have been eradicated, and program manager Ray B. Lizama said that about 85 percent of these dogs were sick while 15 percent were stray dogs.<\/p>\n
The program was also able to pick up 530 carcasses of dogs and cats throughout the island.<\/p>\n
Through the program\u2019s adoption component, 16 dogs were able to find new owners and stay in new homes.<\/p>\n
Five dog bite incidents were also reported. Of the five, three were from Garapan, and one each in Susupe and Chalan Kanoa. <\/p>\n
\u2018Only 10 percent\u2019<\/p>\n
Lizama noted that the total number of registered dogs reflects only 10 percent of the total number of dogs on island as estimated by the Northern Marianas College \u2013 Cooperative Research Extension and Education Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf everybody just cooperate and follow the law, the numbers would have probably increased and be more,\u201d Lizama told Saipan Tribune. \u201cUnfortunately, people are just not abiding by the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
At present, Lizama said the program personnel are conducting dog tagging and registration at the Capital Hill Fire Station right next to the Legislature from Oct. 3 to 14.<\/p>\n
Mayor Donald G. Flores, in a separate interview, urged the public, particularly dog owners, to check their dog tagging schedule at the office to know when and where they can register their dogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you register now, you\u2019re only paying $10 [for a one-year license]. If we are done with the registration schedule and we start picking up dogs, they\u2019re going to be charged more than the registration fee,\u201d said Flores.<\/p>\n
Although he doesn\u2019t know the reason why only a few owners have registered their dogs, Flores hinted that dog owners may not have the money to pay for the fees or the time to go to the registration site.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to simplify everything we could, for them not to bring their dogs and just pay for the fee. We try to make the process easy for the community,\u201d added Flores.<\/p>\n
Given their limited staff, Lizama emphasized that their priorities besides actual tagging is the eradication of sick and aggressive stray dogs in tourist areas and school zones. <\/p>\n
While Lizama encourages dog owners to register their pets, he also reminded those who have already registered their dogs to comply with the program\u2019s regulations, which include having these canines \u201ccontrolled at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of dogs out there that are tagged and being let loose. Those would be impounded. Once those dogs are impounded, it\u2019s going to cost them money to take their dogs back,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
According to Lizama, owners have the discretion to leave their dogs untied inside a fenced property. \u201cIf the place is not fenced, we recommend that it should be tied up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lizama thanked dog owners who have already registered their dogs and urged those who haven\u2019t done so to go to any of their registration sites.<\/p>\n
For more information, call 234-6208 or email dogcontrolprogram.mos2011@yahoo.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A report from the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office Dog Control Program shows that a total of 1,165 dogs have been tagged or registered in five different precincts from June 6 through Aug. 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}