While I welcome the State Government’s initiative to table a bill in the November Legislative Assembly sitting to monitor dog ownership through pet microchip implants, I strongly question the reasoning used by Minister of Local Government and Housing Dr Sim Kui Hian in delaying the introduction of the Bill claiming that there were other more urgent matters such as the Native Customary Rights (NCR) land issue.
While I acknowledge the importance of the NCR issue, not just for the Dayaks and Bumiputeras of Sarawak, but the issue of proper disease and Rabies outbreak control is also a matter of public importance and also an active issue on the ground affecting the lives of our people and our children. Thus, this issue should have been given extra time to be debated and a bill to address this issue should have been tabled.
In Parliament, in practise, any Minister or Deputy Minister can table a motion to extend the parliamentary sessions to late nights if needed in order to debate matters of huge or public importance. I was informed that in DUN Sarawak, the powers lie within the Honourable Speaker to extend the sessions, especially to debate and approve important and needed measures especially with regards to matters of life and death such as this.
I believe, the members of the State Assembly including those from the Opposition Bench will be fully supportive of this and will show our support if it is needed to contain the outbreak and stop any more lives to be affected. The next session now where such bill can be tabled is only in November, few months from now, and it will then take more time for it to be implemented.
This clearly shows the lack of urgency shown by the State Government to properly deal with the outbreak which was first detected in July of 2017. At that time, there were only five villages that were declared as rabies-infected areas and only contained in Serian, but since then, the outbreak has spread to many different places and currently it stands at 36 rabies affected areas across the state comprising of Kuching division, Samarahan, Serian, Sri Aman, and Sarikei.
On top of that, there were reportedly 13 human victims that fell victim to this disease including the last reportedly a five-year-old boy from Mile 6 Penrissen Road.
I welcome the implementation of this microchip which is a radio frequency implant that provides permanent identity for pets. This is to properly identify the pet owners so that we can keep them accountable and responsible to take care of their dogs and animals in an attempt to address the issue of dog/pet dumping contributing to the increase of stray dogs.
This is important because, no matter what ever decision made by the State Government to control the population of strays, the issue will repeat itself if irresponsible owners continue to dump their dogs. Thus, it is also important to address the core issue of irresponsible owners on top of any act of population control that will take place. The Local Council should further enforce dog licensing on top of the required mircrochip, so a better control can be done in case of any outbreak.
Important elements of the Federal Animal Welfare Act 2015 should also be incorporated into our State Laws including the State Cruelty to Animals (Prevention) Ordinance 1963 especially those aimed at fostering a more responsible pet ownership among Malaysians, where it requires all pet owners to be fully responsible for the well-being of the animals under their care, which includes proper lodging, healthcare and diet.
These provisions and other provisions in the Act is also important are important to make sure no inhumane treatment of dogs or animals even during the event of a disease outbreak. I do hope there will be no more delays in the implementation of the Act in the DUN, and that the issue of rabies should be taken seriously to make sure no more lives are being lost due to this outbreak which could have been prevented.