malaysiakini: DOGS NEVER MEANT FOR THE DINING TABLE

QUICK COMMENT:

Here is our media statement issued by legal writer - and Our Assistant Secretary Shenaaz Khan that appeared in Malaysiakini yesterday.

The SPCA Selangor apparently has issued a statement too. I was told that they are planning to do something regarding this matter. You can be rest assured that PETPOSITIVE will too.

More news, as and when, everybody!

aNt
PET+BLOGSPOT

Malaysiakini Letter:

We refer to media reports on how foreign workers in our country have resorted to eating dog meat following the recent price hikes.

PetPositive is repulsed by this sheer act of savagery against innocent animals. To lay blame on the rising cost of food is a foul and shameless justification.

Unfortunately, every time such barbarism is reported, it brings about an outpouring of animal activist anger but not much else.

There are no existing laws pertaining to the consumption of dog meat.

And though the Animal Act 1953 explicitly states that any person who cruelly beats, kicks, ill-treats, tortures or terrifies any animal shall be guilty of an offence of cruelty, such a person shall only be liable to a paltry fine of two hundred ringgit or a measly imprisonment term of six months!

Therefore, substantive changes within the legislative framework need to be formulated. Any form of cruelty to animals should be regarded as criminal act to send a clear message that to cause such suffering is criminal.

One such dog-barbequing brute is quoted as saying the meat of the puppy is ‘tender’.

But an animal’s true tenderness is its companionship, its loyalty and its innate ability to bring meaning and purpose to a human life and this no more apparent than with the elderly and persons with disabilities.

There is NO excuse, be it economic or epicurean, to bludgeon a defenceless animal to death.

Lest we fancy a plate of puppy paws and feline fillet dipped in squirrel sauce, these monsters of mankind must be stopped.

The writer is assistant-secretary, Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (PetPositive), Kuala Lumpur.

And here's the story:

Wednesday June 25, 2008

Foreign workers eating dog meat

By WANI MUTHIAH

KLANG: Stray puppies are ending up as meals for foreign construction workers keen on reducing their food bills.

Indonesian construction worker Wagang Saring said the high prices of food and the need to send as much money to families back home had forced him and his friends to eat pooches.

“Puppies are the best as their meat is tender,” said the 37-year-old Saring. “The meat gives us energy to work at construction sites. Three puppies will do for five men.”

Saring was approached by The Star at a petrol kiosk in Bukit Tinggi after he was seen hitting a puppy with a piece of wood.

He knocked out the puppy with two blows and carried it back to his kongsi where his friends had already built a fire.

Fellow Indonesian worker Marcel Jeheta, 30, said the large number of stray dogs in Klang provided ample supply of meat.

Jeheta, who comes from Flores Island, said dog meat was a popular source of protein back home.

“Dog meat is widely eaten in Flores Island and we continue the practice in Malaysia,” he said.

A check around the construction site found many dogs, mostly females, that appeared to have littered recently . But there were no puppies in sight.

Cleaner Suriyati Norsalim, 40, from central Jawa, was quick to point out that only some Indonesians ate dog meat.

“Only those from Flores Island, who are not Muslims, and some non-Muslim Bataks (from Sumatra) eat dog meat,” she added.

Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Thu, 25, who works at a factory in Klang, said she noticed her countrymen eating more dog meat recently.

She said dog meat was a popular delicacy in Vietnam.

Animal welfare activist Sabrina Yeap said dog eating was gaining momentum among foreign workers because there was no law against it. “It is not illegal and so no action can be taken against those who do so,” she added.

Yeap, who manages the canine sanctuary Furry Friends Farm, said it was time the Government banned dog eating as it involved inhumane killing methods.