The Lusaka City Council (LCC) has embarked on door to door dog registration campaign as part of dog control measures.
The campaign which started last week in Rhodes Park area will spread to all townships and peri-urban areas of the city.
According to the Control of Dogs Act Cap 247 of the laws of Zambia, all dogs in the must be vaccinated and registered by local authorities so that the permitted number of dogs per household is kept.
The law permits that only two dogs should be kept by a person wishing to keep dogs and the dogs must be well secured during the day and when let free at night their movement must be restricted within the premises of the owner.
Anyone wishing to keep more than two dogs must apply to Council stating reasons why he/she requires more than two dogs and permission may or may not be granted depending on the reasons advanced.
Vaccination and registration of dogs is also an important step in the control of Rabies as vaccinated and registered dogs may not pause a danger of transmitting Rabies to humans in an event of a dog bite.
However, LCC has noted with concern that there are many un vaccinated, unregistered and stray dogs in the city contrary to the law.
Last week alone, the council attended two complainants of dog bites in Misisi and Chamba Valley respectively.
In the Misisi case, council health inspectors discovered that the dog which bit a person was not registered and the owner Mr. Enock Silungwe of house number A21 was charged K900.00 penalty fee and asked to immediately have his dogs vaccinated and registered. He was also sensitised on how to secure his dogs to avoid the occurrence.
Meanwhile, two stray dogs were eliminated (short dead) last week in Makeni area.
The elimination of the two dogs was triggered by a complaint by some residents of the area that the two dogs belonging to unknown person were let loose and that they were charging at innocent passersby.
The council working with state police moved in to eliminate the two dogs to avoid possible dog bites.
The local authority wishes to warn all residents keeping un vaccinated and registered dogs to do the needful or risk their pets being eliminated
