Osun State Government on Friday warned dog owners to desist from allowing them to stray around without vaccination, affirming that, any dog that bites a person, its owner will be prosecuted and jailed.
The state Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Adedayo Adewole made this known at the flagging-off of the 2021 free anti-rabies programme in Osogbo.
He however charged dog owners in the state to make use of the free vaccination of domestic animals introduced by the government in a bid to getting rid of the rabies virus across the state by bringing down their dogs for anti-rabies vaccination.
Adewole, therefore, charged pet owners especially dogs to take advantage of the situation by taking them to the nearby veterinary clinics for routine vaccination.
According to him, ‘to ensure that residents of the state are rabies-free, pet owners have been directed to take their pets for vaccination against the virus.’
The Commissioner maintained that “the desire of the present administration to rid the state of rabies-infected pets, the state government threatened to prosecute and jail any residents whose pets bite people while roaming the streets.’
He commended the Federal Government for giving the state 3,500 doses of anti-rabies vaccines and expressed concern over the rising cases of rabies in Nigeria.
In his goodwill message, the Director of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Olaniran Alabi disclosed that through mass vaccination and enlightenment campaigns, the scourge of rabies will become minimal in Nigeria.
He particularly noted that dogs accounted for 99% of human deaths arising from incidents of rabies attack.
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Take your dogs for anti-rabies vaccinations ; Take your dogs for anti-rabies vaccinations ; Take your dogs for anti-rabies vaccinations.