The Nadi Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Dr Ram Raju has called for a joint task force by the ministries responsible and stakeholders to root out stray dog issues.

“It is becoming worse,” Dr Raju said.

Dr Raju’s comments follow the horrific incident where a two-year-old was mauled by a pack of stray dogs in her own compound on Friday morning. It left the toddler with deep bite marks and part of her ear bitten off.

He said: “The chamber made several submissions in the past and we have had numerous meetings with the Nadi Town Council and Police to act on this nuisance.

“We also talked about stray dogs and other animals in our submission to the National Budget that this menace has to be controlled.”

Dr Raju claimed that many tourists had been maimed and locals were also victims of horrific dog attacks.

“This matter needs to be addressed by all the ministerial heads.”

Nadi Town special administrator Robin Ali said last night that the Nadi Town Council would continue with its dog trapping programme.

Mr Ali said the council’s health department team would investigate the Nadi incident on Monday to find out whether the dogs were stray or owned by someone.

He said there was a case in Nadi some time back where a dog owner was taken to court because his dog had bitten someone.

Edited by Ranoba Baoa

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