by MARIE ANGELINE M. PAGULAYAN
University of Santo Tomas Journalism program
MARIKINA CITY—A 69-year old woman walked her way to Tañong Barangay Hall in Marikina City not to secure a cedula or barangay clearance, but to enlist her eright-year old brown mongrel for the annual city-wide dog and cat registration.
“If the dogs are safe, people are also safe,” said Vivian Crudo, as she registered her dog, Queenie Thursday morning.
The pet registration around the 15 barangays in Marikina is part of the city’s campaign to control rabies and to promote responsible pet ownership.
Dr. Manuel Carlos, chief of the City Veterinary Services Office (CVSO) said that the registration is being done to avoid diseases coming from these animals, such as rabies.
For a pet to be registered, the owner should fill-out first an application form from CVSO or from their respective barangay halls. The owners of these pets are also required to submit a 2x2 photo together with a 3R whole body, side view photo of their cat or dog.
“Some pet owners seem to ‘laugh’ at the 3R photo requirement. But in legal matters, it’s very important,” Carlos said.
Upon registration, the pet is given a dog tag and a free anti-rabies vaccine. If the pet has been vaccinated already by a private veterinarian, the owner is required to present a proof or certificate of anti-rabies vaccination.
On the other hand, those who are for renewal should present the old registration paper or dog tag, and duly accomplished application form. Both new applicants and for renewal pay a registration fee of P75.
As stipulated in City Ordinance no. 62, enacted in 2007, failure to register the dog or cat will cost the owner as much as P2,000 while another P2,000 for non-vaccination of anti-rabies.
“(Registration) is an obligation for us pet owners,” said Joselito Fabros, 51, who registered his four-year old golden brown mongrel, Chloe, for the first time since they’ve just moved in the city recently.
Despite fortifying the campaign for a rabies-free community, Carlos admitted that they cannot guarantee that all of Marikina City’s pet owners will comply with this ordinance.
“Though we give house-to-house notice to the residents every first quarter of the year, some of them might even hide their dog from us,” he said.
Carlos added that lack of time, and even laziness from a few number of pet owners, are some of the reasons why not all cats and dogs in Marikina are not fully registered.
In 2009, a total of 7,357 pets, with only 27 cats, are registered in Marikina while the number of pets vaccinated reached 5,346 (with only eight of those being cats) Barangay Conception 1 yielded the highest number of registered cats and dogs with 1,049, with 768 of them vaccinated.
As of July 2010, CVSO recorded 5,641 registered pets (no breakdown by dogs and cats is available).
Crudo and her dog were not new in the pet registration process. In fact, it was Queenie’s eighth renewal for this year, for he has been a registered dog since 2003. “Queenie is a registered dog since 2003,” she said.
The annual pet registration in Marikina City was first implemented in August 2003 under the City Ordinance No. 67 (enacted in 2003), which was amended in 2007 as City Ordinance No. 62.
For this year, the city-wide registration runs from August to September. After the two-month period, the registration will be continued at CVSO.
The Anti-Rabies Act of 2007, or Republic Act 9482, referred to rabies as a “highly-fatal disease cause by a lyssa virus”. This virus is transmitted mainly through the bite of an infected animal, and it leads bitten human victims to suffer from muscle paralysis, hydrophobia, aerophobia, and other neurological manifestations.
Veterinary experts said that rabies in cats is twice as common as in dogs.
While there is a vaccine for rabies, there is no treatment for the disease, says Ameircan veterinarian Dr. Ron Hines in a website link, and once the disease seeps into the brain death is inevitable.
Marie Angeline Pagulayan, a third year Journalism student of UST, submitted this story for her Newspaper Practice and Management class.
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