Pet shelters packed with dogs and cats

Pet shelters packed with dogs and cats

Suherdjoko and Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Semarang

There will be no holiday for most veterinarians and pet keepers
this year, as pet kennels in large cities like Jakarta and
Semarang are full.

"My kennel-cum-clinic in Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD), Tangerang,
is already full so I have to recommend that people take their
pets to my colleagues' or friends' houses," veterinarian Siti
Zaenab told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Siti said her clinic could only accommodate 12 dogs and eight
cats, while her house could house a maximum of five pets.

All of the pet owners, she said, were leaving town for the
holidays.

"Some of them put their pets here for a week, others put them
here for a few months," she said.

The city's animal shelter Pondok Pengayom Satwa in Ragunan,
South Jakarta, was also fully booked.

"Fifty percent of the pens here are still empty, but they have
been booked up for a month. I think most of the pets are coming
tomorrow," a staffer at the kennel told the Post on Thursday.

The shelter has 104 enclosures for dogs, some of them already
filled with stray dogs.

Griya Satwa Lestari, a kennel on Jl. Singasari Raya in
Semarang, has also had to refuse new customers.

"The 27-pen kennel is full and our staff is swamped,"
veterinarian Anna Ekawati said.

"We've had to refuse six to eight customers a day in the last
couple weeks," Maya, a kennel employee, added.

The kennels cost between Rp 35,000 to Rp 40,000 per day for
cats, depending on the food requirements and whether the cat
desires an air-conditioned room or not.

For dogs, Griya Satwa Lestari costs Rp 30,000 a day for small
ones and Rp 50,000 for large ones. BSD Clinic in Tangerang
charges Rp 40,000 to Rp 65,000 for dogs per day.

Facilities and services provided at the kennels range from
feeding and grooming to taking the pets for a stroll in the
afternoons and regular paw cleaning.

"At first, most of the dogs and cats usually experience slight
stress due to the change in the environment," Siti added. "So the
keepers and the vets have to be patient when caring for them. We
have to sit and wait for them to adjust to the new
environment ... even to sing a song to them before dinner."

For further information and reservations, pet owners can reach
BSD Clinic at phone number 538-2483 and Pondok Pengayom Satwa
Ragunan at 781-9617.