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The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in the Pacific has expressed shock and disbelief at the shooting of dogs by local Police.
"We are appalled at the treatment of dogs by the Samoan Government, this is simply unacceptable and should not be tolerated," said Marguirite Young, Companion Animal Co-ordinator for IFAW in a phone interview with Newsline yesterday.
Ms Young is responding to the news that local police were shooting random dogs in the early hours of the morning and dumping them either next to the Samoa Tourism Authority Fale or in the landfill at Tafaigata.
Newsline discovered the carcasses of seven dogs in a pile next to the STA Fale on Wednesday night.
According to an eye witness more than 40 dogs are dumped weekly at the same location for STA workers to dispose of.
The same witness said some dogs come with proper collars and look well fed and clean.
"Last Saturday there were 18 dogs, two nights ago there were 6," he told Newsline.
Mr. Shinn Ete, Coordinator of the National Beautification Committee for STA confirmed to Newsline that the "shooting of stray dogs" is a joint effort by the Ministry of Police and STA to control the stray dog population.
"The Stray Dog Eradication taskforce aims to control the population of stray dogs before the South Pacific Games, so we are trying hard to achieve that by getting rid of as many strays as possible," Mr Ete said.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Police Mr. Papalii Masepau confirmed to Newsline yesterday that the Police have and are still carrying out the shooting of dogs.
Mr. Ete of STA said the project began in January and the shootings take place in the early hours of the morning to avoid danger and disturbance to the public.
"After the Police shoot the dogs, they leave them next to the STA Fale for our workers to transfer to a specially dug pit at the Tafaigata landfill," he said.
Sources say that more than a 100 dogs are shot monthly.
Mr. Ete told Newsline that the Animal Protection Society (APS) is part of the taskforce however a Spokesperson from APS denied any involvement in the shootings.
"We only attend meetings of the taskforce to voice our disagreement and to convince them not to go ahead with such inhumane treatment of animals," the Spokesperson said.
APS said their efforts at creating a more humane way of controlling the stray dog population has been shunned by the Government continuously.
"We are a small organization and it is hard bring our point across," she said.
APS said Samoa should comply with rules set out by IFAW and the World Society of for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).
"Samoa has a Dogs Ordinance of 1961 which prohibits the mistreatment of animals, the shootings directly disregard this ordinance," the APS Spokesperson said.
She told Newsline that APS has tried to work with the Government in the past to control the stray dog problem but to no avail.
The same sentiment was shared by Ms Young of IFAW.
"We recognize there is a dog control problem in Samoa and that the Government has the right to impound dogs, but the dog has the right to be re-homed and it certainly has the right to humane euthanasia," Ms Young said.
"Unfortunate for Samoa, the Government is not willing to pay money to keep dogs or pay for injections," Ms Young said.
- NEWSLINE
