Sen. Lisa Murkowski is asking lawmakers to pass legislation to help tribal members who are bitten by their stray village dogs.
She said, “an average of 4,800 tribal members are hospitalized or receive outpatient care from dog bites each year. Some studies indicate that tribal areas experience a death rate from dog attacks that is 35 times higher than the rest of the nation, with most of these cases are in Alaska.”
Murkowski introduced the legislation intended to control rabies and distemper in Native Alaska communities by deploying veterinary services to Native areas.
“The overpopulation of stray and abandoned dogs in Indian country is a significant public health and safety issue,” Murkowski said. “More than 250,000 reservation dogs, as they’re often, called roam the Navajo nation alone. Alaska Native children experience the highest incidences of hospitalization from dog attacks than any other group in the nation and we need to deal with it.”
Murkowski is vice chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Last month, she introduce S.4365, the Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act.
The act addresses “uncontrolled animal populations and a lack of veterinary care in Native communities, Alaska Native villages, and on Indian reservations,” the bill says, which increases “the risk of parasites and zoonotic diseases, dog bites, food insecurity, and mental health issues among Alaska Natives and American Indians.”
“Dog bites and other injuries are common in rural areas in the State of Alaska, with the Norton Sound Health Corporation reporting an average of 87 bites per year in the Bering Strait region be- tween 2016 and 2023, and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation reporting an average of 98 bites per year in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region be- tween 2008 and 2017,” the legislation says. “Alaska Native children have the highest incidence of hospitalization for dog bites in the Indian Health Service system.”
The act will provide free veterinary services to tribal areas. It will also:
- Amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to authorize Indian Health Service to provide public health veterinary services to Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations in Indian Health Service Areas where zoonotic diseases are endemic and the risk of transmission is elevated due to uncontrolled dog populations.
- Allow Tribes and Tribal organizations to receive IHS funding for such services in their 638 self-governance compacts with Indian Health Service. These services would include eligibility to spay and neuter dogs.
- Provide Indian Health Service with veterinary officers from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to fulfill the purposes of the bill.
- Direct Indian Health Service to coordinate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Agriculture in the implementation of the bill.
- Require a biannual report to Congress on the bill programs and use of funds.
- Direct USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services to conduct a feasibility study on deploying and improving the delivery of oral rabies vaccine in Arctic regions of the country.
- Amend existing statute to designate Indian Health Service as a co-coordinating agency in the National One Health Framework, an initiative to address zoonotic diseases and advance public health preparedness across federal agencies.
The legislation was referred to her committee, where it has had one hearing. To view a copy of the bill, click here.
The Alaska Department of Health issued an epidemiological bulletin on the topic of dog bites in 2015, at this link.
Stray dogs are easily eliminated. Again, the princess dumps public money into the pit created by lack of personal responsibility. .22 is lots cheaper.
You have to be Kidding!!!. I can recall times that eradication of a troublesome animal was the effective remedy. Just saying.
We need free vet services here in Wrangell too. Our neighbors told us that they want to send Lisa to the pound if she ever shows up in Wrangell again. She has not updated her distemper and rabies series, and that is really concerning our local residents.
Foolish spending of taxpayers money by a politician when the country is broke.
She doesn’t care about stupid spending.
Hey Murkowski, how about personal accountability? Let’s let the village elders figure out how to handle the problem, I bet their not big on nanny state mandates just like the rest of us
This has nothing to do with stray dogs. It has everything to do with more free handouts, more entitlements, for rural Alaska – which buys votes for Lisa. Anyone who can’t see this is blind. She has to go. Anytime this person says the words, “good public policy,” hold your kids tight, hold on to your wallet and hold on to your rights. She’s no good, but she knows how to work the rural system.
Princess isn’t even trying to act like a Republican anymore.
Wild dogs are a local issue, not a federal one. One would think a woman who has spent way too many years in Congress would know that.
Like all good leftists, Lisa has no problems spending other people’s money so she can look like she is helping…
Holy moly, WHY can’t the folks who live in the villages take care of this on their own?
This is beyond silly, heck, have the VSPO fix the problem.
Murkowski is just fishing for votes AGAIN!
Any child raised in a non- urban environment (let me add “ non welfare base urban to that)
could easily administer a smidgen of common sense to solve this seemingly unsolvable problem.
Any opportunity to SPEND!SPEND! sPEND!!! As princess whips out her Taxpayer Debt Card!
Or…. how about making it open season on killing off all the damn strays?
Oh, sorry. I meant culling.
Culling the poor, unfortunate feral canines left to fend for themselves; you know, for their own good, to end their suffering. Sounds much more merciful and humane that way, eh?
She’s getting started on buying the village vote
Where is the Native Health Care system on this issue. Don’t they get federal money to assist in their programs? Do we have to start another government organization to start a new program. Where is Senator Murkowski’s head at this time. There are definitely more pressing issues in the Native communities that she could help with like getting a railroad or road into the Kotzebue/Nome area.