HCM City pet owners face fine, animal impoundment if dogs run loose

From September 15, residents will be charged between VND600,000 (US$26.36) and VND800,000 (US$35.14) for letting their dogs out without a leash and muzzle, as per Decree No. 90/2017/NĐ-CP on administrative penalties in the field of veterinary.

Dogs that wander off their owner’s property will be collected by local authorities and impounded at 252 Ly Chinh Thang Street in District 3, according to Pham Minh Tri, head of the Animal Health and Quarantine Office under the municipal Veterinary Department.

Stray dogs will be housed at the facility for a maximum of 72 hours, after which they would be killed by injection and incinerated at the Dong Thanh landfill in Hoc Mon District.

Owners must go to the facility and pay a fine in order to retrieve their animals.

Any impounded dogs have not previously been given a rabies vaccination by their owners will be given the vaccination at an additional charge, raising the total cost of retrieving impounded dogs to VND1.5 million (US$70.29).

According to Khuong Tran Phuc Nguyen, chief inspector of the city’s veterinary department, detaining stray dogs has been a department policy since 1975.

The new regulations are simply a revision to the amount of the fine, Nguyen elaborated, adding that previous regulations only fined owners between VND100,000 ($4.39) and VND300,000 ($13.18).

Patrolling for stray dogs is performed by officers from the veterinary department accompanied by local police officers in order to prevent obstruction by local residents, said Tri.

These officers can be identified by uniforms carrying the logo of the animal quarantine office.  They also carry specialized tools and travel on a truck with a blue license plate, he continued.

Recent statistics show that 70 of arrested dogs are reclaimed by their owners.

The facility on Ly Chinh Thang Street is currently holding two lost dogs that were impounded on Wednesday (September 13).