Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said Sunday his administration would issue a new regulation to control the island's rabies outbreak, following a recent surge in rabies cases.
The administration is currently drafting the details of the bylaw, he added.
Pastika also urged the cooperation of Bali residents to fight the outbreak. The governor had previously issued an executive order imposing tighter restrictions on the transportation of certain animals from and into the resort island, including dogs and monkeys, which are believed to be the primary possible carriers of the deadly rabies virus.
A bylaw has more legal standing than an executive order, since it carries legal sanctions, including imprisonment and fines. The proposed bylaw will detail the authority and responsibilities that the administration's agencies, the law enforcement bodies and the general public should assume in the rabies mitigation effort.
Pastika said he hoped the bylaw would provide the administration with the legal umbrella it desperately needed to enforce various measures to control and contain the disease.
In the past, Pastika repeatedly lashed out at the large number of dog owners unwilling to leash or cage their pets, and thus raising the risk of their dogs getting infected. A bylaw stipulating that pet dogs be leashed and caged was thus deemed necessary to force dog owners to take greater responsibility to prevent the spread of rabies.
"And what about the owner of a dog that has bitten people? We need a legal measure to make owners more responsible for their pets," the governor said previously.
"The procedure to issue a bylaw needs time, as we have to have further discussions with the Bali legislature. However, I really expect the bylaw to be issued very soon," Pastika said.
The bylaw would control, among others, the movements of pet dogs, with owners obliged to cage their pets and ensure they do not roam the streets unsupervised. Otherwise, the owners face disciplinary measures, Pastika warned. The Bali administration has been working intensively to raise public awareness of anti-rabies measures, including how to get the rabies vaccine.
But the administration still needs residents' cooperation to bring sick pets or humans suspected of having been infected with the virus to the nearest medical center immediately.
Pastika also said he expected measures to be taken to prevent the spread of the virus to the island's monkey colonies, particularly since those colonies were among the island's most prominent tourist attractions. Among the more popular monkey colonies are Uluwatu, Sangeh and the Monkey Forest in Ubud. In Denpasar, the administration will start a rabies vaccination drive and stray dog cull shortly after the Galungan, Nyepi and Kuningan festivals - the Balinese Hindu holidays marked on March 18, 26 and 28, respectively. Dewa Made Ngurah, head of the Denpasar Maritime and Animal Husbandry Agency, said his office planned to organize a mass vaccination drive targeting all dogs and cats in the municipality. Culling, he said, was still an open option, particularly for stray dogs and cats. The Bali administration has allocated Rp 875 million from its 2009 provincial budget to finance the mass vaccination drives.
