The Freetown City Council on 28 April started a dog registration and vaccinations exercise for all city dogs. According to the Mayor of the Freetown Municipality, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, the exercise was to identify the total number of dogs across the city of Freetown in order to better manage Freetown’s dog population. The Freetown City Council says it has started the rollout of dog licensing, rabies vaccination, and sterilization of dogs in Wilberforce Village.
Speaking to Beyond Borders, Madam Yvonne Aki-Sawyer said over 80 dogs were registered and received free rabies vaccinations and deworming. She said dog owners were also offered the opportunity to register their dogs for a sterilization procedure which will be performed the following week. “The owners of the dogs vaccinated today received a dog collar and a license book that will need to be updated annually,” she explained.
“Today’s licensing and vaccination exercise was offered free of charge to resident dog owners. Going forward, a modest fee of Le50, 000 will be charged to cover the cost of the dog’s annual rabies vaccination. Freetown City Council intends to roll out the licensing and rabies vaccination process across the entire city. After that, it will be mandatory for all dogs to be licensed and Freetown City Council Animal Welfare Department will begin to enforce this by-law,” she said.
The Mayor added that the Freetown City Council is partnering with Propel and Compassionate Paws International in this phase of the dog licensing exercise. “We thank these organizations for their support. We are encouraging all Freetown dog owners to support this dog licensing process. Be ready to license and vaccinate your dog when the process is rolled out in your area,” she appealed.
Speaking to Beyond Borders, one of the dog owners, Mohamed Kamara, described the exercise as a laudable one. He added that there has been a number of complaints from his neighbor about his dog’s attitude towards them. He said recently, his dog bit a schoolgirl and the matter was taken to the police station where he was charged to pay a fine because his dog was not licensed.
BY MOHAMED AMARA GANDO
