Last week during the Mayors Council of Guam meeting, the Department of Agriculture briefed the mayors on a plan that they plan to roll out in August. It aims to stop stray dogs from attacking those in the community.

Consider yourself warned. Pet owners have about six months to register their dogs, spay or neuter them, and have them implanted with a microchip. According to Department of Agriculture Director Chelsa Muna-Brecht, it's all part of a plan that was created with the stray dog roundup committee.

"It's a plan that we want to roll out to the committee slowly," she said. "We want to allow people the opportunity first to legally register their animals with the Department of Agriculture or with their mayor's offices and obtain tags so that they're easily identifiable."

Muna-Brecht said if you choose to take ownership of your pet or the pets that are around your home, then you need to register your pets. It's part of a statute that's been in the books for close to two decades now.

"The feel currently is $5," she said. "We're trying to establish a baseline as to how many animals will likely be registered with this process. And once you take ownership of that pet, and it belongs to you, it wouldn't be captured during the roundup."

According to information collected by Guam Animals in Need, there are roughly 60,000 stray dogs on island. Muna-Brecht said her department has been able to come up with an estimated baseline that about 5,000 to 6,000 pets will likely be registered from now til August. Last week Wednesday, she presented to the MCOG stray dog control plan and mayors voter to support it.

"They will provide one staff member per village, and each week we will meet in one village to round up the animals within that village," she said. "And we will separate the animals based on those that will be spayed and neutered, those that will be sent to GAIN for adoption, and the really scary aggressive animals that we worry about attacking children and people, those will be euthanized for the protection of the community."

The roundup would take place once during the week and they will start in the villages that have the highest number of stray dogs and complaints. Right now they are working with the mayors to set up registration at their respective village offices so that it's more convenient for pet owners.

"Once we have that process established, then it will be much easier for residents to do that," Muna-Brecht said.

The task at hand, is a huge undertaking.

"It's absolutely worth the undertaking and we have the governor's full support and we want to do this to help our community and protect the pets," she said.

A federal grant will be funding the operational cost of the stray animal control plan for two years, covering the purchase of necessary equipment such as humane traps, microchip readers, and additional dog kennels at the GAIN shelter in Yigo.