FAO/Rusudan Panozishvili

The Agency for Homeless Animals in Kakheti was established in 2022 and within a year they operated about 4,000 homeless animals. 3209 of those manipulations included castration and sterilization.

‘‘This is a very high number, considering that our operating area is adapted for 3,500 dogs per year,’’ said Teimuraz Zavrashvili, the director of the agency.

However, with the teamwork and assistance of other organizations daily processes in the agency became dynamic and the results improved.

The main function of the Agency for Homeless Animals in Kakhetiis to manage the population of homeless pets. However, the institution also vaccinates, provides first aid and other necessary manipulations to the traumatized pets found on the streets.

Zavrashvili says that the issue of homeless pets has been increasing for years and to solv this a systematic approach is needed.

One of the main roles that the municipal or inter-municipal agencies in Georgia should play in the population management of homeless animals is to register and systemize them. The National Animal Registration and Traceability System (NAITS), which is already in use by the Agency for Homeless Animals in Kakheti, gives the pet shelters the opportunity to use the electronic system for this purpose.

"Registration is among the weak points... nobody knows exactly how many homeless animals are here in Georgia. I think that this system will help us to solve a big problem: we will be able to count how many dogs enter the shelter every year, how many were infected with rabies, how many manipulations were conducted, where we found the dogs, etc. The cases of animal migration are also frequent – systematization will help us to register all of this together," said the director of the agency, adding that transparency was another reason why they implemented the NAITS in the agency

Vakhtang Ruadze is among those employees of the agency who record the data about pets in the agency. He says that 30-35 dogs or cats are taken to the agency daily. He collects information about surgeries or other manipulations about them. From the beginning, he and his colleagues wrote down all the information on paper. But now, Ruadze says, “NAITS has significantly simplified this business,” because, collecting the information electronically saves a lot of time and energy.

In NAITS the data is inserted with the animal identification number which dogs and cats wear on a microchip, ear tag, or a tattoo on their body. With the electronic module of the system, each animal's identification number can be accompanied by important information about them, which will significantly simplify the search for data for shelters and other organizations throughout Georgia. This process will also simplify the shelters' relationship with the public audience.In NAITS, it is also possible to automatically generate various types of data, including rabies vaccination statistics.

"Along with population management, rabies monitoring, and vaccination is an important issue. An overpopulation of homeless pets poses a major risk for the spread of rabies. Registration and generation of data of domestic animals vaccinated against rabies throughout the country will significantly help the National Food Agency in the implementation and planning of anti-disease and preventive measures," says NAITS project expert Marika Bokuchava, who has been working on the electronic module of domestic animals in for two years, adding:

"Today animal monitoring agencies and shelters have to produce data and prepare reports on pets in different ways. NAITS will bring together the issue of animal identification and registration in one space which will save time and make access to data convenient.” That's why, according to Bokuchava, it is especially important that the representatives of shelters share their experiences and opinions about the module with its creators so that, finally, the most efficient electronic system can be formed.

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NAITS is implemented by the National Food Agency, with technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC). The implementation of this project started 5 years ago and combines information not only about homeless pets but also about various domestic animals in Georgia.