Cases of dog bites in Dumaguete City, Oriental Negros, went down from 149 recorded in 2004 to 142 last year.

City veterinarian Dr. Lourdes Socorro attributed the decline to the public's continuing consciousness against being bitten by dogs and she hoped the incident would continue to go down this year.

Socorro said she was happy that aside from the reduced number of dog bites, road accidents involving stray dogs also went down to only 12 last year.

She said the decrease could have been a result of her office's intensified drive and barangay visits to campaign among dog owners to put leash on their pets to prevent them from straying.

She said she has deployed five teams to different barangays in the city to urge dog owners to take care of, and to tie their pets.

Socorro said anti-rabies injections were not enough precaution, adding that stray dogs are exposed to rabies because they eat contaminated food from garbage, while leashed pets have lesser chance of exposure to rabid dogs.*RG

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