The head of a team aiming to desex and microchip 800 dogs on Rarotonga over the next four months, says it will help make the dog population on the island much more manageable.
The team, which is supported by the Cook Islands SPCA, and also includes veterinary staff from New Zealand and India, aims to desex and microchip about 10 dogs per day in order to reach their target of operating on about half of the non-desexed dogs on the island.
SPCA Cook Islands manager Tony Jamieson told Tim Glasgow the lack of population control has caused a number of issues on Rarotonga.
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Photo: RNZI / Mary Baines
Transcript
TONY JAMIESON: The project is schedule for four months and we've got that goal of 800 dogs to desex and microchip as well. So that's another benefit for the Cook Islands - it has never been something our dogs have been used to in the past. It's just dogs coming from overseas that may have been microchipped but we don't want to try and manage the population and help when they're lost etc etc. So it's just another major benefit of the programme to microchip the dogs, grab their details as their desexing them.
TIM GLASGOW: Are you appealing for people to bring them in, or are you actively going out and rounding them up?
TJ: We are a pretty small organisation at the moment. So we do anticipate that a number of people, or most of the people will want to take up the benefit of this free service and will be able to manage bringing their animals through, but there are a large number of, or a significant number of strays. There's a significant number of people that will struggle to bring their dogs and we are offering to pick up and drop off, so it's a pretty good offer.
TG: Why was it seen as something that really needs to be done on Rarotonga?
TJ: You know, the people of the Cook Islands really enjoy having dogs and they provide great family company and security for households around the island. So without any sort of population control we do experience more accidents on the road with roaming dogs that tend to get into packs and cause dramas such as fighting, and getting into rubbish bins and some of the unruly behaviour you can associate with large dog numbers and it's just much better for the population to have healthy looking dogs.
TG: Well I guess looking into the future desexing that the dog population now will hopefully be more manageable.
TJ: The quicker that we can get onto it the better. And being able to engage with the public and communities it allows us to talk to people a bit more about animal welfare and just basic care of animals.
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