Punish county officials for mistreating dogs

Cruelty to animals should not be countenanced.

Dogs are the main carrier hosts of the dreaded rabies; a costly disease to manage and to which many have succumbed over the years.

The need, therefore, to ensure that cities and towns stay free of this menace cannot be gainsaid.

For this reason, the Nairobi County Government not only rounds up stray dogs occasionally, it passed and gazetted the Dog Control and Welfare Act 2015, Number 10 of 2016.

This Act outlines public health measures whose target is to ensure all dogs within the city are licenced and receive the mandatory anti-rabies vaccination.

The dogs rounded up during such campaigns are taken to the Nairobi County Dog Pound where they are supposed to not only be vaccinated, but also taken care of. But this does not seem to be happening. According Sunday Standard, our sister newspaper, the canines are neither fed nor vaccinated. This defeats the purpose for which they were rounded in the first place.

For every licenced dog, the county government collects Sh3,000.

This money is supposed to be used for the welfare of dogs at the pound. Just where does the money go?

Cruelty to animals should not be countenanced. As the county honchos have failed to, the Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals should take up this matter.

Those in charge of the dog pound should be punished for this blatant abdication of duty.