The Jakarta Post brings us the new today that the Jakarta city administration has denied that the city authorities plan to regulate the consumption of dog meat. Talk of the ban in the city, which is among the highest consumers of dog meat in the country, follows increasing concern about the spread of rabies. But the head of the husbandry and animal health division at the City Maritime, Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Agency, Sri Hartati, is passing the buck about any ban. According to him, the city may need a gubernatorial regulation to control the spread of rabies disease.
"The main objective is to control rabies. That is all. We will invite relevant parties share their various opinions so that [the regulation] delivers what it should,” Sri said as reported by kompas.com on Wednesday.
Sri said that her agency was concerned about possible spread of rabies, particularly because the city’s dog meat mostly came from Sukabumi, West Java, which is a rabies endemic area.
She said that Jakarta had been rabies free since 2014 and her institution had tried to prevent the rabies virus from returning to the capital city by any means necessary, including vaccinating dogs living in the city.
Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama also said that he would not issue a specific gubernatorial regulation on dog meat consumption.
“We are not talking about the consumption of dog meat, but [rather] reports from residents that there are many dogs infected with rabies viruses entering Jakarta,” Ahok said.
Meanwhile, head of the Food and Drug Monitoring Body (BPOM) in Jakarta Dewi Prawitasari said that the city administration needs to intensify the monitoring of dog meat to ensure that the dog meat consumed by people is free from rabies.
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