The Oyo State Government, Southwest Nigeria, has called on owners of dogs and cats in the state to
vaccinate them against the dreaded rabies disease.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Olasunkanmi Olaleye, made the call on Tuesday in Ibadan during an event to mark 2024 World Rabies Day.
Olaleye asked all dog and cat owners who had not vaccinated their pets to do so immediately by visiting the veterinary centres in the state.
According to him, the best way to prevent rabies in humans is by vaccination of dogs and cats, at least once a year.
He said human rabies death, according to research, is 100 per cent preventable with prompt vaccination of dogs and cats.
He said it was against the Oyo State Dog Law 2019 to allow dogs to rove around without its owner and called on the general public to keep their dogs in confined areas and vaccinate them regularly.
He stated that the state government had embarked on an all-inclusive method to control rabies and other zoonotic diseases, “having discovered that over 70 per cent of infectious diseases in humans originate from animals.”
Olaleye warned that refusal to vaccinate dogs and pets annually “is an offence against the Oyo State Dog Law 2019, with N250,000 fines or six months imprisonment or both.
