Agency head Imam Agung said the culling, which would be conducted at 9 a.m. Friday in the quarantine cage in Bengkak subdistrict, Ketapang, would be done to prevent the spread of rabies in the province.

"No observational or clinical tests are required to cull the dogs because Bali has been declared a rabies pandemic area," Imam told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Imam said the Banyuwangi regent, police, port officials and officials from the regency husbandry agency would witness the culling.

Officials from Ketapang Port seized the dogs early Monday morning, moments after they arrived at the port.

Saharudin Kotto, operational manager of the port's operator, PT ASDP Ketapang, said officials became suspicious after hearing dogs barking from the back of a pickup truck. After checking, they found dozens of dogs being trasported in two iron cages on the truck.

"They looked very dirty and some had even died in the cages," he said, adding the dogs did not come with proper documents.

The owner, Supriyanto, told officials that the dogs would be transported to Kediri, East Java, to guard a poultry farm.

The port's officials, however, suspected the dogs were to be sold in major cities as meat.

A member of the Agriculture Ministry's quarantine commission, Chairul Anwar Nidom, said the dogs would be culled by incineration. He said incineration was in line with the prevailing procedure to prevent the spread of the rabies virus to other animals.

"It's true that not all dogs from Bali are infected by rabies. Yet since Bali has been declared a pandemic area, isolation must be conducted," he said.

Nidom added that under certain circumstances, for instance during a pandemic, animals transported from the pandemic area did not need a clinical test to make sure they were positively infected. However, if the animal's owners did not want to have their dogs culled, they could transport them back to the place of origin.

Rosek Nursahid, chairman of animal rights NGO ProFauna Indonesia, urged the authorities to hold the dogs under observation for at least two weeks before conducting the culling to make sure the dogs were indeed infected with rabies.

"Although Bali is a rabies pandemic area, dogs coming from Bali are not automatically infected by the disease. That's why observation is needed for the sake of the dogs' rights," Rosek said.

Rosek conceded there was the potential of rabies entering East Java from Bali through the dogs. Yet, in preventing so, he said, there was no need to conduct the culling blindly.

"The dogs have the right to live. They deserve to eat and drink while in quarantine. If culling is needed, similarly, they deserve to be culled quickly and painlessly. Don't just burn them alive," Rosek said.

Bali has been gripped by a rabies pandemic since November 2008.

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