Keep Your Dogs Inside Your Houses For God's Sake!

I want to start this with a rant. I'm in a subdivision where some of our city's top businessmen, professionals, and politicians live. Our street is one of the main roads, and it is also where cars from the National Highway who want to do short-cuts pass. This is one of the busiest streets here.

Unfortunately, people here would always take another route, a longer route beside the dangerous highway, than walking down this street. Why? Because of the dogs who already owned this entire place.

For starters - these dogs aren't strays. They have owners. What bugs me is that these people, even though they have big houses and yards, are letting their pets do their business outside, where they chase and bite passersby. What's worse - these dogs are probably not vaccinated! We live just a few blocks from the Barangay Hall, and they're doing nothing about it.

There was a time when I was about to walk my son in his stroller. Luckily, I immediately saw a pack of dogs running in our direction. I opened the gate again without any second thought and pushed the stroller (with my son) inside. I almost got bitten but managed to get inside as fast as possible. My scream helped a little in slowing them. What if we, or my son, got bitten? He was only 8 months then!

"Aso Mo, Itali Mo!" (Keep your dog on a leash!)

Just imagine my disappointment when I recently learned about the Republic Act No. 9482 or the Anti-Rabies Act of 2007. All local government units should implement this!

Here's a copy of this act from paws.org.ph.

For those who would take this literally - this doesn't mean you should tie your dogs to a tree or chain them somewhere 24/7. Keeping your dogs inside your yards where they wouldn't cause any harm to others is enough. This would also keep them safe from accidents - from being hit by a car, stolen, or poisoned by the things they could ingest outside.

In some places, this is being implemented. We rescued some dogs from several dog pounds in the Metro. These poor animals we rescued were already a few days or hours away from being euthanized. If not for their owners' negligence, they wouldn't be in those dogs' pounds in the first place!

There were even newborn puppies and pregnant dogs. Many of them were sick when we got them. After a few days, some of them died because of Parvo. Unfortunately, the puppies weren't able to make it as well. Some were fortunate enough to survive. The survivors already have new families/homes as of today.

So where did these dogs come from? They were all caught roaming the streets!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we can't rescue every abandoned dog. For every rescue, we rely on people's donations. And the whole thing doesn't stop there. After the recovery, there will be medical expenses to consider.

To prevent all of these... the change should start with us - the dog owners. If you know you can't handle a possible 10 to 13 years of commitment with your dog, don't get one in the first place. If you can no longer care for your pet, find someone who can! Don't just abandon it or let it live on the streets. You'll be causing more harm.

I'm calling the attention of all local government officials. Please do your jobs and put some priority on this act. Many dogs, as well as people, are at risk.