Dog registration campaign moves to south Mahé   |10 February 2022

The aim of the campaign is to reduce and control the number of stray dogs in the districts and the country as a whole

Dog owners in the southern regions of Mahé, namely Takamaka and Baie Lazare, can now any time expect a visit from animal welfare officers and technicians to encourage them to register their dogs as part of a campaign launched in August last year.

The aim of the campaign is to reduce and control the number of stray dogs in their area and the country as a whole.

Since early last month the team of officers started visiting dog owners in the south, namely Au Cap and Anse Royale, to encourage them to register their pets.

A project of the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, the registration campaign also forms part of the implementation process of the Control and Protection of Dogs Act 2018 which gained momentum last year.

The registration campaign kicked off in the north, more specifically at Bel Ombre – a district with a high population of stray dogs – and gradually moved to other surrounding districts.

Shannon Chetty, an animal welfare technician working with the registration campaign, told Seychelles NATION yesterday that they spent the whole of August in the north and moved to the central region at the beginning of September.

“We have registered animals whose owners were willing to do so. But after we left the north region we’ve had to go back to meet owners who were not present when we called at their homes as well as those who for financial reasons have asked us to come by later,” said Ms Chetty.

She noted that they also encourage pet owners to neuter their animals for those who are yet to do so.

The registration fee for a neutered dog is R50 while the fee for one which is not yet neutered is R500.

People who want to complete the registration formalities online can do so by accessing the following website www.nba.gov.sc/dog  and registration forms are also available at all district administration offices as well as veterinary clinics at Union Vale and Grand Anse Mahé and requisite stores on Mahé and Praslin.

For those dog owners who said they were not aware of the registration campaign or that they do not find it important to register their animals and they do not want to cooperate, Ms Chetty  said they try to encourage and convince them to do so.

Meanwhile since the launch of the registration campaign in August to December last year, a total of 1105 dogs have been registered. Ms Chetty said the figures could have been higher but many people are yet to cooperate and understand the need to be more responsible for their dogs and are willing to pay to have their animals neutered as it is through registration that we can control the number of stray dogs in the different communities and the country in general.

“While there are many owners who are taking good care of their pets, we found that there are instances where not everything is being done as expected and this is where we try to advise them on how to better improve the welfare conditions of the animals,” Ms Chetty said. 

Meanwhile Ms Chetty said they cannot give a timeline when they expect to complete the process as people continue to take new animals which need to be registered and there are also those owners who flout the process and need a lot of convincing.

She is advising people to ensure that before they decide to bring home a dog make sure they have a suitable place to house it, enough money to buy its food, enough time to spend with it and enough space for it to have its daily exercise.

With regard to the number of dogs that continue to roam the community as well the town area, Ms Chetty affirmed that often more than a third of them have owners but who for one reason or another have just let them go. She said that the campaign to collect stray dogs and take them to the different animal shelters is not ongoing for the time being for reasons that the shelters are either full or are facing numerous constraints of their own which make it difficult to take in more animals.

Jimmy Marie, an animal welfare officer who works with the Seychelles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and also helps take care of animals in the centre at Providence has confirmed that the animal welfare centre, which opened in 2018, is currently facing a lot of challenges and cannot take in more animals even if it would like to try its utmost to accommodate them.

“With the heavy financial constraints brought about by the impacts of Covid-19 financial donations we received to help run the centre have dwindled drastically as people become more mindful of their finances and assistance from CSR are no longer forthcoming. Adoption of animals from the centre has also reduced considerably and up to three months can go by with not a single animal being adopted but it can happen that in a week up to five animals can be adopted,” said Mr Marie.

But he noted that those animals that are adopted are always replaced as demand to take in more animals is always there.

Compiled by Marie-Anne Lepathy