Tuesday, April 05, 2016

FMT: Please stop the suffering of street dogs

On FMT Letters today

By #MyAnimalJustice

I refer to the incident last week where a stray dog was bludgeoned to death in a Kuala Lumpur mall. It was a terrible and tragic piece of news for all Malaysians to read.

The relevant authorities such as the Department of Veterinary Services, the police and Kuala Lumpur City Hall should not rest until justice is served to the perpetrator of the heinous act, even though it had been committed against a dog which was treated as an outcast in our society.

It was never the dog’s fault. Instead it was really ours – and our apathy towards all stray canines (and cats) in our environment.

What happened to the poor stray animal should serve as a lesson to all of us. All dogs belong in a loving home which they deserve; not in the streets where each day is a life of suffering and a survival of the fittest for them.

They deserve basic rights, such as shelter instead of having to run into the car park of a shopping centre when the elements such as the rain or sun are against them. They need to be in a loving home where they can received prompt veterinary care when they are sick – not die of maggot-infested wounds which are highly preventable and others.

They should never become statistics of road kills, or be poisoned by residents because local councils do not act on time in removing them. They should never be put in a situation where they become a nuisance or a danger to others, especially to vulnerable groups like children, the disabled or the elderly in parks and other public places.

It is not right at all to blame children or anyone else when stray dogs attack human beings. That is what they inevitably do, when canines end up in packs and are left in a position to make jungle decisions for themselves.

It is this reason why we should appreciate our dogcatchers from our local councils. They have the dangerous task of removing strays from the streets to protect human beings as well as the animals themselves so that what happened to the dog that was bludgeoned, does not happen to them.

Animal welfare NGOs should work with all the local councils to ensure that they perform their tasks in a humane way instead of inflicting any cruelty on the innocent animals they capture. Each dog should be kept for at least seven days in their respective local pounds and put up for adoption and be spayed.

For those that do not make it, let’s be realistic, it is better to put them down painlessly than to send them back to a slow, painful and hellish life on our streets.

With a firm belief in freedom of expression and without prejudice, FMT tries its best to share reliable content from third parties. Such articles are strictly the writer’s personal opinion. FMT does not necessarily endorse the views or opinions given by any third party content provider.

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