SECTION 1. When it shall appear to the Director of Health that rabies exists among dogs or other animals in any community in such a degree as to constitute a grave menace to the public health, he shall, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, give publicity to such fact by publication of a notice in a local newspaper, if any there be, and also by posting the same in one or more prominent places in the community. Such notice shall describe the locality of infection, and it shall advise the owners of dogs or other animals liable to contract or convey the disease effectually to muzzle or otherwise restrain said animals for such period of time as shall be defined in said notice.
Notice so published shall have the same legal effect as a sanitary regulation of the Bureau of Health, and any owner or person having control or possession of any dog or other animal referred to in said notice who shall fail to muzzle or restrain the same as above required shall be punished by imprisonment of not more than six months or by a fine of not to exceed two hundred pesos, or both, without prejudice to civil liability for any damage that may be done to the person or property of another by reason of rabies or hydrophobia having been communicated from such animal.