Pan Buncing, 60, relies on his four dogs to protect his cattle.
He rarely feeds them, letting the dogs look for their own food in trash bins or other places. He simply gives them shelter out on his front yard.
"They always come back to my house though after feeding at wherever they go to feed," he said Tuesday.
The way Buncing treats his dogs is similar to many other Balinese, who rarely collar their dogs or put them on leashes. It is near impossible to identify pet from wild dog.
The public is doubting the effectiveness behind the provincial government's plan to cull the island's wild dogs after a rabid dog was recently found on this island, which has been rabies-free for the past several decades.
Buncing himself disagrees with the plan, not wanting to lose the dogs which he has relied on to safeguard his cattle for years.
Dog owners aren't the only people being troubled by the rabies scare. Semaraputra, a 69-year-old owner of a pet shop on Jl. Veteran, Denpasar, said the threat of rabies had made it harder for him to sell pet dogs.
Semaraputra, whose pet shop has become increasingly popular since he rented out his home to be used as a pet shop in 1982, said more and more customers were asking whether his dogs had been vaccinated against rabies.
The rabies vaccine is not available in Bali as, until now, it had never been needed.
"I don't vaccinate my dogs. That's the customer's decision. It's just so troublesome to keep answering the same questions again and again," he said.
He said he believed only wild dogs could get rabies since they were more prone to meeting other wild dogs when scavenging for food.
He, on the other hand, receives his dogs from a dog breeder in Kintamani, who supplies him with domestic breeds, such as the East Java Tengger, and international breeds, such as the Bulldog and the Chihuahua.
"I personally think the whole issue is overblown. Only wild dogs can get rabies. It's impossible for my dogs to get rabies. If they had rabies I would be dead already," he said.
According to Yudisthira Swarga, an organization that works for canine welfare in Bali, dogs that roam the streets are mostly pets.
"Culling dogs on the streets would require amazing care because most of these dogs actually have owners. They just let them loose," Yudisthira Swarga manager Rina Dwiasih said Tuesday.
Yudisthira Swarga does not have a record of the number of dogs in Bali, as a survey necessary to compile the data would require animal behavior experts due to the sheer amount of dogs roaming freely in the streets, Rina said.
The organization itself has sterilized 31,943 dogs found on the streets to limit their population. It also treats the dogs for skin irritations and gives them vitamins.
Rina said she hoped that if the government proceeded to conduct a mass culling of wild dogs that their methods would be in line with international procedures, which required dogs to be put to sleep before administering a lethal injection.
"It's the more humane way because it doesn't cause suffering for the dogs," said Rina, who is also a veterinarian.
She also said it was not advisable for owners of rabid dogs to poison their dogs' food.
"That is highly risky because it would require these people to supervise the dogs for at least four hours before the poison took effect," she said.
"Besides, that method would cause the dogs to suffer painful convulsions."
Another risk, she said, was the that a healthy animal, or even a person, could accidentally eat the poisoned food.
The Bali Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Agency has stated that it has so far culled 75 dogs.
;JP;LUH DE SURYANI; ANPAb..r.. Bali - Rabies-correction JP/5/Correction
Dog culling
Correction: Yudisthira Swarga Foundation wants to clarify that it has never extracted cranial fluids from dogs to test for rabies as reported by The Jakarta Post on Nov. 28, 2008. Neither has it helped the Bali provincial government cull more than 11 dogs, as quoted by officials according to the Post's report on Dec. 2. The Post would like to apologize for any confusion these statements may have caused.
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--Editor
