DUSHANBE, July 21, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Local authorities in part of the southern Khatlon province have issued a ban on any family having more than one dog, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports.

Sulton Valiyev, the head of the Vose district, told RFE/RL that some families have three or four dogs and, when one grows old, they put it out on the streets.

He claimed that at least 300 residents in Vose have been attacked by stray dogs in the past six months.

Marjonbek Nosirov, the head of the Vose Sanitary-Epidemiological Station, told RFE/RL that treating people who have been bitten by dogs that may be infected with rabies is an expensive procedure.  Nosirov said a special local council unit recently killed some 300 stray dogs in a single operation.

But a local woman named Sanginmoh told RFE/RL it is expensive to take care of dogs and not that many people own more than one dog.

She said the increase in stray dogs in Vose may be because it is a suburb of Kulob, and people from Kulob take their unwanted dogs to Vose and abandon them.

The Kulob municipal council claims it is also trying to keep down the number of stray dogs. It has exterminated more than 1,000 canine strays over the past 18 months.