Beginning in 2006, the municipal dog control program has been capturing, housing, and caring for sick and stray dogs.
Three years later, the program still works, and the island has been free of the usual problems plaguing the other islands.
That’s because stray dogs often attack farm animals, attack people’s garbage and make a mess, cause disease to spread, and scare or even attack tourists and joggers.
“The veterinarian, Dr. Dela Cruz, was just here, and we’ll be calling him back again,” said Mike Evangelista.
The veterinarian makes routine trips to Tinian for the purpose of treating the dogs in the kennels.
Stray dogs are not the only dogs that are put in the kennels.
“This dog [referring to the recently captured black dog] was given up by its owner,” said Evangelista. “Instead of killing it or letting it go into the wild, he called us.”
“We encourage other residents to adopt dogs, and today we found a new owner for this dog,” he added with a smile.
The new owner is Ray Cing, a Tinian resident.
The procedure for adopting one of the dogs in the custody of the dog control program is to pay a $10 tagging fee.
The dog is then free to go with its new owner.
Currently, all dogs on Tinian are tagged.
Dogs without tags are considered homeless and are immediately picked up by the dog controllers.
Contact the Tinian & Aguiguan Dog Control Program office at 433-1800 for more information on how to adopt a dog or to report stray dogs in your area.
