Let’s be more compassionate towards the homeless animals

I write as a dog owner, an advocate for humane treatment of animals and responsible pet ownership.

There is a large community of individuals and animal lovers who subscribe to the moral obligation of humane treatment of animals and call for the best practices of animal welfare policies.

Yet, beyond belief, one twisted and perverse campaign was recently unveiled by SMC Public Health, Environment and Municipal Services chairman Richard Ting.

Here’s what takes the cake.

1. For every ‘alive and well’ animal delivered to SMC for disposal, a bounty of RM10 per puppy head and RM50 per adult dog head is offered.
2. Poor Pendidikan Moral lessons by the ‘exemplary’ chairman are:

• that animal lives don’t matter;
• that pets are disposable commodities; and
• that the barbaric acts of inflicting harm, suffering and death on ‘alive and well’ animals are now being normalised and rewarded with bounty prize money.

We can’t get more perverse than this.

3. He also proudly announced that strays caught cannot be donated, delivered to pet shops or NGOs, for sale or be rehomed or to participate in any adoption programmes.

Pray tell which section of what law is he citing? And what loathsome policy is he trying to set precedence?

The man whose salary is paid by taxpayers and whose entrusted core job obligations is to serve the community with well thought-out policies to protect the voiceless by implementing punitive measures on abuse, neglect and irresponsible pet owners actually spews a detestable bounty incentive of RM10 to RM50 for every surrendered dog head.

Nobody wants rabies. The enormity of the tasks at hand needs to be shared by both civil society and government.

This is not exclusive to government and NGOs alone. Everyone must work together towards a common vision of the desired outcome.

We must respect the sanctity of life and be compassionate in handling strays and all life forms.

We need not rehash horror stories on how puppies, dogs, cats whether strays or lost, are captured and culled in the name of rabies, without recourse in past years.

Thankfully a voice of wisdom cuts right through this madness. Against this backdrop, our Premier who, contrary to Ting’s pronouncements, recently promptly proposed a statewide neutering campaign in place of rewarding public captures.

He further called for a humane stray population management to be studied.

We are thankful to our Premier who has set the ball rolling in a radically different direction.

We now appeal to the state government to review and revamp past policies of mass culling which has proven to be ineffective for rabies control.

It is a timely call for a fresh blueprint and road map. The AWA 2015 came into force in July 2017. It is indeed timely for the Animal Welfare Act 2017 to be extended to Sarawak.

Let the recent AFA conference not be one of optics, self aggrandisement and hype but one that bears real fruits on the ground.

Let us together commit to be more compassionate and empathetic towards the homeless animals.

Let sound and proven methods be implemented to eradicate rabies in our state.

As Mahatma Gandhi aptly reminds: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

ANNA WEE
Co-founder,
Furry Soup Kitchen,
Kuching