WEEKEND VIEW: POUND DOGS: What's The Best Way To Deal With Local Councils?

aNt's aNgle:

IT'S FUNNY HOW SOME ANIMAL-LOVERS THINK.

Nothing seems to ever appease them when it comes to local governments (PBTs) and dog pounds.

No matter what PBTs do to try and improve the situation of a pound, they are never satisfied. 

Every action of local councils is seen by them with deep suspicion and distrust.

Fortunately, these are only a small group of people.

For them as long as councils continue to catch dogs, keep and kill (euthanise) them, the latter will always be unpopular and eternally incorrigible in their eyes.

But does anyone stop to care and think about why canines end up in such a hot soup in the first place?

Is it really true that all PBTs possess a strong and an insatiable craving to get rid of all dogs in our country? 

Maybe some people do. 

But every single person and every single council? 

Come on, get real people!

If that were true, one can also say the very same about NGOs that work towards neutering campaigns. Now, such efforts literally want to stop the production of dogs in our environment. 

If it is true that the goal of councils is to eradicate canines, then why do they bother to issue dog licenses in the first place? 

And why are some councils like the Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) and Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya (MPSJ) for instance, currently engaging themselves in education programmes about dogs?

Early next week they are holding a workshop on the topic of proper and humane care among local councils and pet owners.

This event is expected to bring together a dozen local councils in Selangor. That makes up all the 12-local councils in the state. 

Whilst this is a closed-door event for the general public, animal rights and welfare organisations and the Department of Veterinary Services have also been invited for the occasion making it the first time such a collaboration of its nature is being held pretty much in the history of our nation.

At this meeting all participants are expected to express their concerns and put forward their views about how to create a more effective way of dealing with canine problems faced by the local councils.

Not many of us realise that local councils catch dogs based on the public's complaints on the animals. 

Trapping them and putting them in pounds is a responsibility that local councils have to take because it is not only their jobs to do it but there are local by laws calling for such actions to be executed. 

So if we want someone to blame, we should be pointing our fingers at these complainants rather than the local councils. 

But then again, is it really the complainants' who are the ones who are at fault again? 

The source of the complaints are the animals that bark too much, or go over to the annoyed neighbours homes to unceremoniously pee and poo there?

Which, brings us to THE JACKPOT QUESTION: is it the dog's fault or their lazy owners who don't bother to take them for walks on a leash and pick up after them. 

So who are the REAL culprits and monsters?

Yet, what are animal NGOs that are often quick to condemn local councils doing about educating pet owners of their responsibilities on these matters?

If it is not our job as animal NGOs, whose dirty job is it?   

What I really don't get is if councils are wrong in the way they treat animals - and we all know that many of them have been - what are we as dog lovers doing about it?

I'm not talking about pointing fingers at them? Gosh, that really is the easy way out.

But pray tell me which NGO has ever tried to work with local councils for a change? 

I don't mean just storming into offices and handing over memorandums to the governors and mayors.

I'm talking about properly planned and persistent follow-up efforts and programmes with more tack, friendly persuasion and diplomacy.

These down-to-earth approaches in my experience have proven to be far more effective than in pointing righteous fingers, screaming in blogs and inundating sometimes distorted and exaggerated stories into the mailbags of politicians and what-nots.

Recall the wise lesson we learnt as children in our fairy tale storybooks about a boy who cried wolf?

There is a right place and time for everything: pictures and exposes, write ups, media highlights, memorandums, demonstrations, complaints to the Department of Veterinary Services and the full works.

But pray tell me once again in which parts of our current campaigns in the so-called "MPS scandal" did we allow for diplomacy and healthy dialogues to take root before we decided to pull out our parangs (machetes) and samurai swords? 

To use the great John Lennon's phrase, did we give peace a faint of a chance for a possible genuine working together relationship before resorting to operation SWAT rescue? 

And friends, the only way in which I see such a thing ever happening is if we are willing to leave the past behind.

Let's think about the great today and what we hope to build for in an even greater tomorrow. 

But that doesn't in any way mean that the past has nothing to teach us. We should cherish it as a solemn reminder of what we all don't want to see happening ever again.

The past should not prejudice our hearts and minds into not allowing to rekindle lost hopes and regaining our trust in people - even if some of them happen to be old faces that we had engaged with before. 

Let us not judge people and label them and become paranoid in the process. To do that would turn us into the very demons and ghouls that we see in other people.  
 
And just because I say this does not mean I'm now a government agent or a spy as one particular ardent critic of mine labeled me the most recently. 

Frankly, I've heard people saying all kinds of things about me but I must admit, this is the most amusing and rather flattering one of all.

However, I'm not interested in being dragged into cat fights with difficult or troubled personalities.

All I can do is to feel very sorry for such people and hope that one day they will wisen up and learn to use all that wasted energy on something more productive for others than on me.  

But let's focus away from me and concentrate on what really matters most: the dogs in the pounds. 

Because this is all about them, it is vital that no matter which camps we come from, we need to keep focused on how to bring about effective change for the countless strays in all the pounds throughout Malaysia.

One such humble opportunity begins at the workshop.

PET+BLOGSPOT! is using our Weekend View from right now until Sunday to try and broach your views on how this can best be done. 

Please write in with your views on how you think the dogs at the pound and the local councils can help to raise their quality of lives. 

Views expressed here will be brought up at the major workshop next week. They will also be discussed at the Canine Advisory Team meetings in Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (MPS), MBPJ and MPK.

Kindly note however that only polite and constructive remarks will be published in this blog

aNt
PET+BLOGSPOT!   


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