Dog-catching competition - aNt's analysis

THE MADNESS is finally over.


















Common sense has prevailed.

Some people's pride took a serious dent.

But most importantly, stray dogs are free to roam in Selayang once more.

At least until minds are made up between the Government bodies and animal welfare groups on how best to solve the problem of stray canines.

According to residents associations (judging from media reports) the homeless canines in Selayang are purportedly being a nuisance in the neighbourhood and town. Animal NGOs handing over memorandum to MPS

Residents fear that these hapless animals may one day turn nasty and attack children. At least this is one of the "strongest arguments" the authorities float around for devising the cruel and outrageous dog-competition in the first place.

As I write this, there are concerns that the MPS blog is still carrying the competion advert in its homepage. Some groups like the Coalition of Animal-Lovers of Malaysia (CALM) which I must add contributed greatly in halting the MPS contest have expressed serious misgivings about this.


















However, I don't think that the MPS dares to back-track on its promise. To do so would be practically suicidal on their part. Imagine the kind of uproar such a thing would create among animal-lovers all over again!

To think that the MPS would cheat on them? No, I don't think so!

I think what is more likely is that the municipality has just not bothered to remove the offending ad from its website yet. Or maybe even that they are facing some technical glitch at the moment or that the-person-who-knows-how-to-do-it is simply not avaialable at the moment.

Not a surprising occurence in Government outfits.

As far as PETPOSITIVE is concerned, we are out of the discussions for now. As most of you know - or might not - CALM, ROAR, MARPO and PETPOSITIVE walked out of the meeting when the MPS refused to call off the competition first before anyone of us began a dialogue on the matter.

Our position was that there can be no dialogue on the competition as it was outrageous. We made it clear to the chairman of the meeting that we would only sit down to talk after the competition was scrapped.

We didn't want to be used by any quarters to twist the story around to our disadvantage and say that we endorsed the whole thing.

And to make matters worse, the other side was so hostile to us that it seemed pointless that anyone there was really willing to listen with an open heart.

And because the Selangor SPCA decided not to walk out with us (for reasons better known to themselves) it is officially the only NGO in discussion with the MPS.

And although the SPCA had invited PETPOSITIVE to join them in future meetings, we have decided to stay out for now and observe the developments from afar.

After all, the SPCA has far better experience dealing with strays that our Society.

On our part, though, we have formally requested the SPCA to bring up two major concerns involving our disabled and elderly members:

1. Request that dog licenses be given free-of-charge for the disabled and elderly in view of the fact that pets play a therapeutic role in their lives.


2. Microchipping, spaying costs be fully borne by the Council for its disabled and elderly residents.

The President of SPCA, Ms Christine Chin has given us her word that she would bring this up in her deliberations with the MPS.

Finally, I want to point out one more thing.

There appears to be a debate going on currently among some quarters as to which NGO or even individuals got the MPS to finally buckle in and abort its dog-catching contest.

My answer to that question would be it was ultimately the protests from the public that brought about the victory for the Selayang strays situation. Thanks to all of you dog-lovers out there who wrote in your letters of protest to the newspapers. You did it!

A special mention also goes out to CALM which held a demonstration on the Sunday before the contest was called off on Friday. That event brought about unprecedented coverage in the media on the next day. This was followed by the memorandum handover to the MPS by ROAR, SPCA, CALM, MARPO and PETPOSITIVE on Tuesday.

I also think that Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Khir Toyo also had a big hand in bringing on the collapse of the competition. By him publically declaring that he was upset with the prize money, I think that the MPS had no choice but to call it all off at its meeting on Friday.

That to me was a face-saving measure for the council than anything else.

By Anthony Siva Balan Thansayan