DAVAO City Veterinarian Office (CVO) said there are dog owners surrendering their pets due to incapacity of keeping them.
"There are so many irresponsible dog owners here in Davao City, kay among office alone naga-cater mi og pila ka mga request na ipa-impound nila ilang mga iro kay kesyo daw baho na, tigulang na, unya daghan na kaayo unya dili na mapakaon (we usually receive requests to pick up their dogs to be impound because they can no longer take care of them, due to old age, or its too smelly)," Dr. Gay Pallar, Chief, Animal Husbandry and Disease Control Division of the Davao CVO, said during the I-speak press conference on February 23, 2023 at the People's Park Conference Room.
She added that in some cases, the dog owners like to keep puppies but once they get older, the owners are no longer interested in keeping them.
However, Pallar said picking up dogs from the dog owners home is already out of their scope.
"Ang ato man gud City Ordinance 1457, caters stray animals na makita in public places, market, plaza og dili para moadto sa ilang mga balay para kuhaon ang mga iro nga dili na nila gusto (The City Ordinance 1475 caters only to stray animals found in public places, market, plaza but it was not meant to pick up dogs from the dog owners' home simply because they do not want the dogs anymore)," she said.
She said that there are a lot of requests to impound their dogs and some of them would even throw a fit if their requests are declined.
"Unya we only have one impounding vehicle then we cater 182 barangays, unya gusto nila nga unahon sila para kuhaon ilahang dogs (We only have one impounding vehicle and we cater 182 barangays then they want us to prioritize their dogs)," she said.
She added that there are also subdivisions requesting to prioritize their area in impounding the stray dogs and pets of some irresponsible owners in their subdivision.
Pallar urged barangay officials to implement the city ordinance at the barangay level.
"Para ma-address nato ang problema aning mga stray dogs kay di gyud makaya kay daghan kaayo og irreponsable gyud (So we can address the problem of stray dogs because we cannot do all the work because of the many irresponsible pet-owners)," she said.
She said by implementing the city ordinance, since there is a corresponding fee in impounding dogs, barangay officials may keep the 30 percent of the total revenue of the impound fee for the development of their barangay while the remaining 70 goes to the city.
Also, she said barangay officials may purchase an impounding vehicle that will be used to impound stray dogs and transport them to the city dog pound in Malagos.
She said there are only two barangays out of 182 barangays in the city that have impounding vehicles and are fully operational – Calinan Proper and Cabantian.
Meanwhile, Pallar said they usually impound at least 25 to 30 stray dogs in a day and only 10 to 12 percent of the impounded dogs were claimed while the rest will be euthanized or undergo mercy killing.
She said in 2022, they impounded a total of 4,243 stray dogs while only 521 were claimed and the rest were euthanized. KSD