The city plans to start catching stray dogs and delivering them to a pound, Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema said Wednesday. He also encouraged residents to eat more dog meat.

The announcement comes a day after the governor called on commune officials in a meeting at City Hall to clean up dog excrement from city streets.

“Stray dogs have created a lot of problems in the city,” Kep Chuktema said Wednesday. “They defecate at public parks and cause traffic problems.”

City Hall is hiring dog catchers to patrol the streets, the governor said. Captured dogs will be taken to a pound in Meanchey district where they will be properly fed.

Owners will have to pay 20,000 riel (about $5) to get their dogs back. The governor said the mon­ey will be used to transport the dogs and pay the dog catchers.

Although Phnom Penh does not have as many dogs as Lon­don, Kep Chuktema said, it is still important for the city to have a stray dog policy.

In addition, the governor plans to target the selling of dogs on city streets. Instead, he said, dogs should be sold in an or­ganized man­ner in a “proper place.”

Kep Chuktema said banning dog meat would hurt the city. “Come on, dog meat is so delicious,” he said. “The Viet­nam­ese and Koreans love to eat dog meat.”

Dog meat should be sold openly in the market, he said, because poor people eat dog meat.

“They don’t have [nice] wine, but poor people can enjoy their dog meat with palm juice wine,” Kep Chuktema said.

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