Discover the Secrets of Dog: June 2009

It’s a doggone pity that what may have been a more humane alternative to stray dog culling backfired when the canines starved to death on two islands, creating waves of anger all over the world.

IT happened about 10 years ago but the dog-shooting event left a scarring memory on teenager Vivien. Only five or six years old then, she witnessed the shooting of stray dogs on her island of Pulau Ketam by a team from the Klang Municipal Council (MPK).

“They shot all the stray dogs on the island, including a young dog that I liked and had been feeding,” she recalls.

In safe hands: So far, animal activists have managed to rescue seven dogs from the uninhabited island of Pulau Tengah.

The experience not only frightened Vivien, as she wants to be known, but also the rest of the islanders who were mostly small scale fishermen and traders then. Pulau Ketam headman Cha Keng Lee too recalls the incident and says that the MPK dog-catching unit visits the island once in two years.

“They do not shoot dogs anymore but we still do not like how they exterminate the dogs. They hang them to death before loading the carcasses into boats to be taken to the mainland,” claims Cha.

As the village headman, he is concerned that such an inhumane action would put off tourists to the island, which is one of Selangor’s tourist attractions.

“That is why we decided to trap the strays on the island and transport them to the nearby islands of Pulau Tengah and Pulau Selat Kering so that they would not have to be killed,” says Cha.

However, he adds, he was not aware that the islands would not have food or water to sustain the canines.

Clarence Chua, spokesman for canine welfare project Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better, scoffs at Cha’s claims, saying it is difficult to believe that Pulau Ketam residents didn’t know about the islands’ physical condition.

“It is ridiculous for someone from the Pulau Ketam fishing and trading community to make such a claim,” says Chua.

Ironically, what the villagers believed was a better solution than MPK’s has blown up in their faces and Pulau Ketam is now regarded with disdain by not only the locals but also the international community.

Media reports about 400 strays trapped and dumped on the uninhabited islands surrounding Pulau Ketam have resulted in an international outcry.

Many of the unfortunate dogs died and those surviving have resorted to eating the carcasses of the ones that had died.

Animal activists have been racing to both islands to rescue the dogs but geographical obstacles such as the mangrove swamp surrounding the location have made the rescue operations difficult.

So far, Furry Friends Farm has managed to rescue five dogs while the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has rescued two.

The catastrophe which has been extensively covered by the local media had also found its way into ABC News, CNBC, Fox News and newspapers in the United States, Britain and the Philippines.

Local animal welfare activists are also up in arms not only against the folk of Pulau Ketam but also the local authorities.

This is not the first time that the local authorities have come under fire from animal welfare groups for their alleged inhumane methods of handling stray dogs.

In February this year, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) garnered negative publicity when allegations surfaced that its staff were breaking the necks of dogs in their pound before dumping the carcasses in an open grave. Animal activists gathered outside the DBKL pound and held a peaceful vigil in protest. DBKL was also taken to task by animal welfare groups for allegedly feeding stray dogs poisoned chicken meat to cull them.

DBKL denied both allegations even though there was a video footage of the first incident and witnesses’ account for the second.

Bounty hunters

The Selangor Government has also been criticised for allowing local councils to spend hundreds of thousands of ringgit to hire two canine bounty hunting companies to round up stray dogs.

The companies were paid about RM30 per dog caught and it was common to see many of the dogs in the pound wearing collars, indicating that they belonged to someone.

Some of the local councils, such as MPK which does not have pounds to hold caught strays, have also been lambasted for keeping the dogs in lorries for days before they are euthanised.

Independent Pet Rescuers founder Sherrina Krishnan says the money should instead be used to create a humane method of dealing with the stray dog population.

“Why not give the independent animal welfare groups land to collectively build a sanctuary for these dogs and the money could be used to neuter all the rescued dogs as well as to manage the place?” says Sherrina.

James Hogan, vice-chairman of the London-based Mayhew Animal Home and Humane Education Centre, says in an e-mail interview that he was shocked and disturbed by what had transpired in Pulau Ketam.

Sadly, it is one more example of what happens when there is inadequate regulatory framework to govern the way people relate to the animals. He adds that the review of existing animal protection legislation currently being carried by the Malaysian Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) must be accompanied by pro-active enforcement measures.

He says it would be interesting to make statistical comparisons between the way enforcement is effected in England and in Malaysia.

In 2007, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), investigated 137,245 complaints of cruelty, issued thousands of verbal warnings, spent £6mil on prosecutions and secured 2,026 convictions in court hearings for cruelty, he shares.

Hogan adds that convictions resulted in jail sentences, bans from keeping animals, community service orders, conditional discharges and fines ranging from hundreds to thousands of pounds.

“It would be interesting to compare these statistics with the number of court hearings, convictions, bans, fines, etc, that were effected by the DVS during the same period in Malaysia,” he says.

In Malaysia, people are hardly brought to court over animal cruelty cases and those prosecuted are let off with merely a slap on the wrist.

Seeking a lasting solution

Hogan says his organisation regularly plays host to delegations from overseas city governments who want to find a lasting solution to the issue of animal over-population in their city.

“For the record, I have personally made several approaches to the Malaysian High Commission in London, inviting them to send someone to visit us so we could at least have some exploratory discussions about this issue but they have shown no interest in engaging with us,” says Hogan.

Meanwhile, Selangor exco member in charge of local councils Ronnie Liu has called for all independent rescuers and rescue groups to come forward and work with the state government on matters pertaining to animal welfare.

“Please take the initiative to come forward so that all of us can work together with the local councils to bring positive changes to the methods currently in use to counter the problems of strays in the state,” he says.

Liu adds that he is open to suggestions and wants more groups to participate in the rescue of the abandoned dogs.