Stray dogs are a federal responsibility? Murkowski prioritizes free vet services for Native villages

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Provide Indian Health Service with veterinary officers from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to fulfill the purposes of the bill.
4. 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.
5. Require a biannual report to Congress on the bill programs and use of funds.
6. 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.
7. 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.