Dog lovers here may soon have a lot more legal obligations to deal with when deciding to get one as a pet
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This as a Dogs Bill is expected to be brought to the next Sitting of Parliament expected to begin tomorrow, May 9.
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said on radio on May 8 that the country had a real problem with dogs.
“A lot of people keeping dogs, well having dogs but not keeping them and they are roaming all about,” Gonsalves said.
There have been incidents where they have killed animals and stray dogs cause other types of problems for the public.
“I mean, it has gotten very bad, so we have to deal with it,” he added.
According to the prime minister, there are those who walk larger, aggressive dogs in public and these dogs, because of their owners, could also become problematic, Gonsalves reasoned.
“You notice I’m talking about owners – it’s a dogs Bill, but it is also about owners because dogs are not recognised to be dangerous by nature like for instance a tiger or a lion,” said Gonsalves.
The problem began with a lot of dog owners, he continued, and how such individuals deal with their dogs.
“How they control them, what they encourage them to do and not do; how they train them, so we have to address that,” Gonsalves contended.
Just recently, two of the country’s schools – the Thomas Saunders Secondary and the Girls’ High School were forced to close for a few days because of a flea infestation which according to Curtis King, Minister of Education, was the result of the large number of stray dogs that frequent the area of the decommissioned E.T. Joshua runway at Arnos Vale.