17 Illegal Dogs Were Euthanized

Denpasar, Kompas - The Integrated Agriculture Quarantine Agency Class I Denpasar had euthanized 17 of 20 puppies trying to be smuggled into Bali through Gilimanuk Harbor in Jembrana district. This action was taken to reduce rabies transmission. Head of the Quarantine Agency, Ketut Diarmita on Wednesday (28/1) in Denpasar said the euthanasia was done on Tuesday in Jembrana by injecting poison into the dogs. Specimens from each dog have been taken for testing at Denpasar Disease Investigation Center Laboratory. Before intervention from the quarantine agency, three dogs had already died because of poor transportation conditions in the bus.

“We have applied strict measures to avoid further introduction of rabies into Bali and also to make Bali free of rabies once again. Besides that, together with the regional rabies mitigation team, we are studying the strain of rabies virus entering Bali. That is why we took the specimens to the laboratory,” said Diarmita. He also had mentioned two regulations supporting the elimination of the dogs, which are the Agriculture Quarantine Agency Decree No 4775.a/PD 670 320/L/ 12/2008 and the Agriculture Ministerial Decree No 1696/Kpts/ PD610/12/2008. Current rabies virus strains in Indonesia are Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan, and Flores/Sulawesi.
The twenty puppies were found by the Gilimianuk Harbor Police (KP3) in a tourist bus on Monday. The dogs were in six plastic baskets and were without any legal documents. The bus driver said somebody asked him to take the dogs to Denpasar, Bali, when he was passing through Probolinggo, East Java. It is suspected that the dogs were to be sold in Denpasar. (BEN)
Source: Kompas