Chimi Dema | Tsirang

The Department of Livestock and Tsirang dzongkhag administration signed a Dog Population Management (DPM) roadmap, on June 21.

A two-week mass dog sterilisation and rabies vaccination programme completed in Tsirang last week. More than 90 percent of Tsirang’s 3,000 dogs were sterilised and vaccinated during the camp.  It was a part of the National Dog Population Management Flagship Programme.

The DPM programme was implemented in the dzongkhag to achieve more than 90 percent sterilisation of dogs and 100 percent registration of pets and vaccination against rabies.

Tsirang Livestock Officer Gyem Tshering said that the continuity of such a programme after the completion of the DPM programme would help in achieving 100 percent responsible pet ownership by 2025 and zero free-roaming dogs and zero human death by dog mediated rabies by 2030.

Gyem Tshering said that the remaining dogs would be covered in subsequent community animal birth control (CABC) programmes.

Some of the expected outcomes of the DPM Roadmap are promoting and advocating on responsible pet ownership through enforcement of the Livestock Act of Kingdom of Bhutan 2001 and Livestock Rules and Regulations 2017, reducing the population of free-roaming dogs through enhanced animal birth control programme and adoption and controlling the population by maintaining the number of unsterilised dogs to less than 5 percent at all times.

To achieve the targets, the dzongkhag administration and agencies concerned are mandated to plan CABC programmes annually and incorporate them in the dzongkhag’s Annual Performance Agreement. The plan should be consulted with local leaders to ensure annual budgetary commitment and support for the programme.

The dzongkhag administration would also allocate an adequate budget to conduct CABC and other related programmes in the respective throms and gewogs until 2025.

Edited by Tshering Palden

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