The Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office is still waiting for the design of its new animal shelter to be approved. This time, the shelter will be in As Perdido.<\/p>\n
The old shelter in Lower Base became unsafe and was eventually condemned by the Department of Public Works after Typhoon Soudelor\u2019s harrowing winds blew its roof away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe animal shelter, they\u2019re finalizing the design and once it\u2019s final we have to send the design to [the Federal Emergency Management Agency]. Once FEMA approves that, it will be put out for bid,\u201d said Apatang last Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The mayor said that DPW is finishing up the shelter\u2019s electrical design. <\/p>\n
The shelter itself will be built at a cost of nearly $400,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a big one. It\u2019s going to accommodate a lot of dogs. We\u2019re looking forward to that,\u201d said Apatang.<\/p>\n
In an earlier interview with Saipan Tribune, the mayor said they have no choice but to relocate to As Perdido as their old Lower Base site has been designated a flood zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it\u2019s a flood zone area FEMA requires us to rebuild it 6 feet higher but we just don\u2019t have the money for that. So we\u2019re asking FEMA to reconsider the money that they gave us and, instead of repairing it, we would reconstruct a new building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Apatang thanked the Department of Lands and Natural Resources for allowing them to use their facility in As Perdido to temporarily house their animal control program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re moving to As Perdido. We\u2019re sharing half and half with [Division of] Quarantine. The secretary of DLNR was good enough to let us share part of it. It\u2019s very limited but at least we\u2019re still picking up stray animals that roam around the villages and those that are very vicious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Apatang said once the design is finally done and the bidding process doesn\u2019t encounter any problems, the mayor\u2019s office would hopefully inaugurate the new animal shelter before the end of the year. He admits the opening couldn\u2019t come any sooner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of complains at the Garapan business area of stray dogs running around. Business owners in turn let their dogs out to chase the stray dogs away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Apatang said his office will also again conduct a spay and neuter campaign in conjunction with the Humane Society of the United States. <\/p>\n
He said he fully supports Rep. Edwin Propst\u2019s (Ind-Saipan) Animal Protection Act of 2015 that makes it illegal to abuse animals in the CNMI. Currently, the Commonwealth is the only U.S. jurisdiction with no animal protection laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cI strongly support anything that prevents inhumane treatment of animals, especially dogs,\u201d he said adding that Propst\u2019s bill was written with input from the Humane Society.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they don\u2019t want their dogs, call us and we\u2019ll pick them up. Don\u2019t abuse them. We\u2019ll take care of them,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office is still waiting for the design of its new animal shelter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4734,493,3659,187],"class_list":["post-245364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-edwin-propst","tag-fema","tag-humane-society","tag-lower-base"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245364","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}