Dog owner sued

THE State has sued a Luanshya resident for failing to confine, register and vaccinate his dogs after one of them bit an 80-year-old woman. Luanshya Municipal Council Public Relations Officer Gideon Thole said the State prosecutors had sued Park Munkombwe, a lecturer at Technical Vacation Teachers Training (TVTC) College for failing to vaccinate, register and confine his canines. Mr Thole said Mr Munkombwe was this week expected to appear before Luanshya magistrate Chitundu Kalunga, during the court sitting held at the Fast Track Court based at the Civic Centre, where he was expected to provide answers to the charges levelled against him. He said the dogs allegedly jumped over the fence into a neighbour’s yard and bit the woman who was seated outside the house leaving her in a critical condition. In a statement to the Daily Nation, he said the woman was hospitalised in the Intensive Care Unit at tThompson District Hospital. He said the dog bites from the attack which occurred on June 20, 2020, left Ms Lucia Chansa, who is the mother of Mr Munkombwe’s work-mate, who resides at TEC 05, in a critical life threatening condition. He said the Luanshya Municipal Council Public Health Department, carried out an investigation which established that the identified male dog and its female partner both belonging to Mr Munkombwe were neither vaccinated against rabies nor registered with the local authority contrarily to the Control of Dogs Act chapter 247 of the Laws of Zambia. He said according to the 2 Council’s Public Health Department’s findings, initially only a male dog was said to have bitten the woman but later it was established a female dog had been spotted at the scene. Mr Thole said the Control Dogs Act provided for the veterinary officer to make ruling over the fate of the canines, which included ordering a 10 to 14-day period for each dog to be confined for observation. Mr Thole stated that the 10- 14 day tie-up order period was what determined whether the dogs would be discharged or eliminated. He however disclosed that the Council’s public health inspectors and the veterinary officer decided both the male and female dogs were eliminated by being subjected to shooting by the State police on July 16 and 17 2020 respectively.