Dog owners in Sarawak must apply for license or face fine

He said a fine not exceeding RM 5,000 as provided under the Local Authorities (Dog Licensing and Control) by-laws 2018 can be imposed if they fail to do so.

Apart from that, he said pet owners were also encouraged to get their licensed dog microchipped as it is part of the mass vaccination programme.

"To date, there are 24,241 licensed dogs throughout the state. Of these, 2,104 dogs have been microchipped.

"Once we are free from rabies and should your dog get lost or picked up by the councils, authorised personnel will be able to scan the dog for the microchip number and have your contact information to be retrieved from the data centre to enable them to identify the dog and its owner," he said in a statement here, today.

As rabies is still prevalent in Sarawak, Tiang said all dogs should be vaccinated once a year, including puppies above the age of four months.

"Only with achieving coverage of 70 per cent of the total dog population in Sarawak being vaccinated we can hope to break the chain of the rabies virus and contain the disease," he added.