A Ministry of Environment officer in Samoa says the entire community needs to help address the growing problem of stray cats and dogs.
The Ministry has teamed up with the Tourism Authority, the Animal Society and an American veterinary group called Animal Balance, to begin sterilizing stray cats and dogs from next week, in a bid to reduce their numbers.
The Ministry's assistant CEO, Faleafaga Tony Tipama'a, says that there are too many strays because so many owners don't look after their pets properly.
He says the problem needs a collective effort.
"Too many stray dogs here and people don't take good care of them sometimes and it becomes a problem. And the problem is they sometimes bark at the people in town, they even become so fierce they do bite people. So we had a programme before and we went out catching them and unfortunately we just need the support everybody else because its everybody's responsibility to try and take care of all these stray dogs and now they're going to be looking at cats."
Faleafaga Tony Tipama'a.
