Hanoi (VNA) - Although the Hanoi People’sCommittee has recently tightened dog management by asking dog owners toregister their pets, the vast majority of people have remained unaware of thepolicy.

According to the national blueprint onprevention and elimination of rabies in the period between 2018 and 2021, thelocal authorities request dogs to be registered, leashed or kept in owners’living spaces and muzzled when playing in public areas. Dog owners have to payfines when their off-leash dogs are seized by law enforcement. If off-leashdogs bite people, their owners must pay for the victims’ medical needs.

However, the policy has caught little attentionof dog owners as dogs are still allowed to run off leash without muzzles anddefecate on streets. The situation is more common in Hanoi’s suburbandistricts.

Pham Quoc Thang, director of TS Milan, aVietnamese national standard dog farm, told Thanh Nien (Young People) Newspaperthat he knew nothing about the new regulation.

“Professional dog trainers mostly register forcertificates of breeds for their dogs. These dogs are also microchipped formanagement,” he said.

He also stressed the significance of leashingand wearing muzzles for dogs to protect pets and humans.

Lan Khue, a dog owner in Nhat Tan, Tay Ho district,had never heard of dog registration. However, Khue said that she would complywith the new regulation.

On the other hand, many people find ittroublesome registering their pets.

“I have raised dogs for some decades and theyare all friendly. Since I already give them rabies vaccinations annually, Ithink that to have dogs registered is unnecessary and a waste of time. I wonderhow the authorities will manage dogs. We have not done the registration and noone has asked us to do so,” he said.

Local authorities are struggling to implementthe regulation.

“It is difficult to ask people to register theirdogs, although we make a list of dog owners,” said Trinh Chi Thanh, head of theBuoi Ward People’s Committee in Tay Ho district.

Hoa Xuan Thuan, deputy head of the committee,said that the locality had established an interdisciplinary team to impose theregulation. No violations had been detected although dog faeces are stilleasily found on streets, Thuan added.

“Therefore, we mainly focus on raising awarenessof dog owners about hygiene and safety for people and surroundings,” he said.

Nguyen Ngoc Son, head of the Hanoi Department ofVeterinary issues, blamed local authorities for not strictly adopting theregulation. Therefore, dog owners have not paid enough attention to muzzlingtheir dogs in public spaces, registering and cleaning after their pets.

The data collected by Hanoi’s districtauthorities shows that there are about 426,000 dogs and cats in Hanoi. Ninetypercent of them are vaccinated and more than 90 percent of dog owners know andobey national policies against rabies.- VNA