Angeles City—Stray cats and dogs have reportedly invaded schools here, prompting Mayor Carmelo Lazatin, Jr. to order the implementation of trap-neuter-release (TNR) and anti-rabies vaccination in the premises of 53 public schools in the city.
The mayor’s move aimed to assist public schools’ administrators address the problem of proliferation of stray pets within school campuses, as well as ensure the safety of the schoolchildren against potential rabies infection.
“We understand the concerns of our schools in taking good care of stray pets practically living in the school,” Lazatin said.
Lazatin pointed out that through the TNR program he launched in 2020, the city was able to arrest “unwanted animal population.”
Lazatin aims to deploy the City Veterinary Office headed by Dr. Christian Arcilla to the 53 public schools. Butch Gunio
The program is being supervised by the mayor’s chief adviser IC Calaguas and executive assistant IV Reina Manuel.
Calaguas and Manuel were both advocates of TNR program and were known to give shelter to stray cats and dogs.
Calaguas has even implemented the TNR at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency National Headquarters in 2019 and Clark International Airport Corporation in 2021.
According to Arcilla, the TNR also serve as a measure to check the incidence of rabies infection in the city.
The city government was also conducting house-to-house vaccination of anti-rabies to pets in the 33 barangays.
