Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Support WildlifeDirect:
buy branded merchandise

Dogs Killed

Category: Life of a Vet, Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2008 | By: admin

I have just managed to reach one of the big towns here in Trans Mara, Lolgorian. This town is predominantly Maasai town and needless to say, livestock trade is major business. Town holds two major market days (Wednesday and Saturday) and Maasai livestock traders from all over Trans Mara and Narok districts congregate in “soko ya ng’ombe” (cattle market). Many are Maasai from Loita region who spend two days walking to Lolgorian and three days back to Loita with mix herd of cattle, sheeps and goats. On Thursday and Sunday morning following the market days, you will come across parade of livestock along the main road.

lolgorian1.jpg
“soko ya ng’ombe”

When there is a major trading of livestock in form of live weight, there is off course amajor trading of livestock in carcass weight. Slaughter house in Lolgorian is busy on Wednesday and Saturday. As a consequences, stray dogs of Lolgorian town wait patiently around the abbatoire for occational meat scraps, causing growing concern for Public Health Department. Stray dogs can potentially become the vector for diseases such as Hydatidosis and you really don’t want “scavengers” hanging around in a place where people handle meat for human consumption.

slaughterhse1.jpg

So, last month, the department sent some officals to take care of the problem by euthenizing them. Some dogs with owner also hang around the slaughter house and these dogs also died from feeding on the bait. As I visited households from Lolgorian, owner bittery told us that their dogs were killed last month. The point I want to bring out here is the issue of public health awareness and responsibility of dog owner. I am not blaming the public health department because they are doing their job in taking care of human health and preventing chances of potentially human-transmissable diseases. It will be owner’s responsibility to restrict their dog’s activity around the slaughter house, as well as town’s management to clean out trash point and fence off larger premises of the slaughter house, so that dogs do not become scavengers in town. People must understand that being an unresponsible owner is the direct cause of death of their dogs.

dogvacc12.jpg
This particular owner restricted her dogs in courtyard.

dogvacc11.jpg
I hope next generation will be more responsible dog keeper.

Share This

7 Responses to “Dogs Killed”

Paula, on 14 Mar 2008

Asuka that slaughterhouse looks disgusting! surely if they weren’t leaving bits of meat around where dogs can access, the dogs would not be hanging around the slaughterhouse.I’m going to inform the KSPCA should be alerted to raise an alarm about this inhumane practice which they have been stopping in Nairobi.

Dogs Killed at Dog and Puppy Stories, on 14 Mar 2008

[…] asuka always has something good to say. I like this one posted earlier today. Follow the link for the whole thing.The point I want to bring out here is the issue of public health awareness and responsibility of dog owner. I am not blaming the public health department because they are doing their job in taking care of human health and preventing … […]

Christine C., on 14 Mar 2008

Ah, Asuka — one of the most disheartening and common elements of so many of these blogs is how domestic and wild animals constantly suffer for the indiscretions and irresponsible behavior of humans. When will we learn????

Dog Traning » Blog Archive » Dogs Killed, on 14 Mar 2008

[…] pipat just wrote an article aboutHere’s a preview of it: […]

Theresa Siskind St Petersburg FL, on 14 Mar 2008

I will never condone the poisoning of an animal, ever. You are correct to say pet owners need to keep their dogs (cats) from running free. They should also vaccinate and spay/neuter their pets. These slaughter houses have a responsibilty too!!! What happens if a vulture or other scavenger comes across a carcass of one of these poisoned dogs? Well, we know what the result is, further decimation of our prescious wildlife. I have seen a stray cat go into convulsions after licking antifreeze. It was god awful!

F. J. Pechir, on 14 Mar 2008

If the slaughterhouse has the appropiate instalations any dog would be there. Is the responsability of the slaughterhouses to do this disgusting and cruel practice of killing animals in the right way. The owners of the dogs are responsible too, but the dogs are innocent victims, as always. This people are who create the problem and then just blame the poor dogs, classic! I would like to see those people being poisoned instead of the dogs!!

asuka, on 15 Mar 2008

I didn’t intend to post this entry for this incident to be reported. I work with these community on daily basis and do not want any conflict with them. In a given situation, they are doing their job. I feel that it will be much better approach if local people are given an alternative before banning of any practice. For instance, if the slaughter house is not up to its hygienic standard, it will be much more helpful for local community if someone can raise money to build the proper slaughter house, or build large fence to restrict dog’s movement around the abbatoire. People who actually use this place depend on this place and it will be unfair to do anything that jeopardize their business (which might be the likely consequence if one start reporting to different organizations).

P.S.
The slaughter house in Nairobi (mainly Dagoreti and Kiamaiko) which supply meat to virtually all Nairobi residence is far more disgusting than what it is in Lolgorian. I spent entire month there during my school days doing meat inspection, dogs are found swimming in blood pool just next the the building and Marabou stork forage around the slaughter house.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply