CAT Meets Dogcatchers For Special Talk

DATELINE KLANG, SELANGOR: 

As many as three local councils in the state of Selangor are taking part in a special meeting this morning - something that has never been done before.

More than three dozen of them belonging to the vector units of the local councils will be convening to talk about a hot potato topic for animal lovers: the issue of dog-catching in their various locales.

The three local government bodies are namely the Klang Town Council (MPK), Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) and the Selayang Municipality (MPS).

Also present at the meeting will be an animal care expert Dr Thiba Rajoo from the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS), animal rights and welfare nongovernmental organisations and several activists.

The NGOs who will be participating at the meeting are Petpositive and the Selangor Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).       

The half-day event is being put together by the Canine Advisory Team or CAT of the MPK.

"We initiated this session in order to raise more animal care awareness among the councils' dogcathers," explains Anthony SB Thanasayan who is Chairman of MPK's CAT to PET+BLOGSPOT.

"We realise that whilst theirs is a job that no one wants to do, it is still an essential one in controlling the numbers of stray animals in our towns and cities for health reasons among the public," he adds.

"Some residents, however, unfortunately do not recognise or appreciate this. They instead treat dogcatchers with disdain rather than with respect.

"I have heard of some dogcatchers even being blocked or attacked by residents for doing their jobs.

"Our session therefore is two-pronged: First, it is to affirm their positive and necessary contribution to society.

"Second, it is to arm them with more tips on how to perform their jobs more humanely as there have been accusations of animal-cruelty in the way dogcatchers go about doing their tasks", concludes Thanasayan who adds that there will be many more dog-catching training to come in the near future.  

The special animal-control session will also be attended by MPK's Health Director Mr Zulkifly Abbas. 

It is being held at MPK's headquarters in Jalan Perbandaran Klang.

Meanwhile, PET+BLOGSPOT has learnt that a mischievous dog blog has been continuing to spread lies and distortions about CAT's activities.

The latest is on CAT's dog-catching humane awareness sessions.

CAT has been accused of going on dog-catching "sprees". 

A comment in the story made a vicious claim that Paws Animal Welfare Society which is a member of MBPJ's CAT team had refused to go on a dog-catching exercise last year implying the NGO was against the idea.

"Half of dogs in PAWS are caught by MBPJ" - Edward Lim

However, when PET+BLOGSPOT checked this matter out with PAWS Manager Edward Lim yesterday, he rubbished it.

"Although PAWS was unable to take part in the exercise, we gave our full support through providing canned foods for the strays caught and in their journey to our shelter.      

"How can we be against dog-catching when half of the number of dogs that come into our shelter are strays that are caught by MBPJ?" asked Lim to emphasise his point.

Now that we got to the truth of the matter, there is only one conclusion to make out of the lies being spread: ANIMALS ARE FAR BETTER THAN HUMAN BEINGS!      

Note: Pictures are courtesy from a joint dog-catching training exercise conducted by CAT in April of this year.

PET+BLOGSPOT

 
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