Control Pet Population

THE EDITOR: The public needs to know that there is an urgent need to control our pet population in this country. To assist in this let me give you some researched facts:
• There are more than a million (1,300,000) dogs in the country.
• Many diseases have been traced to animals including AIDS and SARS.
• Dogs defecate directly on our soils, drains, beaches, yards, parks. Many owners walk their dogs daily in order to defecate on our roads.
Annually a staggering 250,000 tons of raw dog sewerage (faeces) is dumped on our yards, roads, drains and rivers and reaches our food supply, which we eat.  (I wonder if this diet is causing some children to literally start acting as animals?)
• Dogs can cause more than 39 infectious diseases. They include parvovirus, leptospirosis, parainfluenza, infectious canine hepatitis and many others too long to be pronounced.
They can be passed on to humans by dog vomit, dog saliva, dog sneezing, dog coughing, dog urine and dog faeces.

Our pretty pompek dogs can be a pretty dangerous and expensive disease carrier. They can trigger many lung diseases such as asthma, bronchitis and others in humans, including children. Every time we hug a dog or he barks we are exposed to a multiplicity of germs, viruses and bacteria. No wonder we are dying young and getting all kinds of strange animal diseases. Therefore, I am begging the authorities in the country to make every effort to control the pet population. I expect the VET Associations, dog breeders and dog food vendors to disagree with this advice, after all it is a multi-billion dollar business for them.

KAREN WILLIAMS
Bon Air