KOTA KINABALU dog-owners should take more trouble to close their front gates properly after them, when driving out of their homes.
A spokeswoman for City Hall’s Environmental Health Department said this would go a long way to ensuring that their pets did not escape into the common areas and become a nuisance to their neighbours.
She said the agency had received reports, from time to time, about canines chasing pedestrians and cyclists, tipping over rubbish bins in their search for food or soiling the road-shoulders with their stool.
“In most cases, the four-legged culprits were not strays but licensed pets,” she said, “which means that this inconvenience could have been avoided.”
As such, she said it was advisable for rate-payers to restrain their dogs inside their compounds prior to opening their gates.
“Those with conventional gates should lock their gates and not just drive off, leaving them wide open. Those with an automatic gates, on the other hand, should wait for it to close all the way before setting off.”
She said these individuals were obliged to go after their canines if these pets got loose.
“They shouldn’t just leave these canines roaming about their neighbourhood until they come back.”
Such common sense went a long way to minimising the likelihood of their dogs unwittingly becoming a source of frustration to the public, according to the spokeswoman.
“We have instructed owners, time and time again, to keep their canines inside their yard and to make sure that they accompany any pets which are released into the common areas. In cases where their dogs managed to squeeze through the bars in their gate, or holes in their fence, they should have these ‘escape routes’ sealed.”
The spokeswoman said the agency’s Animal Control Unit (ACU) was authorised to catch any canines found wandering unsupervised on those roads under its jurisdiction.
She said the owners could be compounded up to RM500 – under City Hall’s Registration and Control of Dogs By-laws 1963 (Amendment 2008) – and would have to settle this penalty before their dogs were returned to them.
“Repeat offenders risk being taken to court. If found guilty, they could be subject to a fine for as much as RM5,000.”
The spokeswoman was responding to feedback about a pack of dogs which had been wandering about on Lorong Rampai in Kepayan for the past month.
A Taman Selesa rate-payer said between four to five canines had been spotted on the stretch in the early morning and late in the evening, when the weather was cooler.
Some of this number had collars around their neck, according to him, which created the impression that they may have either got free from their owners’ compounds or been deliberately released onto the housing road.
He bemoaned the nuisance created by their barking which he said disrupted the peace in the neighbourhood and, at times, prevented him from getting a restful sleep at night.
The homeowner provided Hotline with the pertinent evidence to support his observations. This information was forwarded to City Hall.
The spokeswoman said a team from the ACU went to Lorong Rampai twice over a span of 10 days this month.
“Ten of our workers walked down this road and the adjacent ones, armed with nets, on these occasions,” she said, adding that an open truck was deployed to facilitate this effort.
“They came back from the first check empty handed but managed to catch two strays during their second try.”
She said a total of 24 pamphlets on City Hall’s dog-rearing guidelines were left in post-boxes of homes in the area during these inspections.
“The ACU will make periodic checks of Taman Selesa to determine whether rate-payers are complying with our requirements.”
