February 14, 2025
KLANG VALLEY – For animal rescuers and shelter operators, their job is literally costing them.
It has become a norm for them to pay up to thousands of ringgit in compounds or fines to seek “custody” of street dogs that were captured by local councils and kept in the pounds, said rescuer Joanne Low.
“The rescuer also has to raise funds to neuter and vaccinate the animals.”
“Some of the dogs are usually infected with parvovirus or the distemper virus, or even both. In such cases, more money would have to be raised to go towards setting up a quarantine area, and paying for the treatment,’’ said Low, who has been doing rescue work for about three decades.
On Monday, The Star quoted animal welfare group founder Siti Fauziah Abdul Jabbar as saying that the Kluang Municipal Council (MPK) in Johor would charge RM500 for the release of each dog to anyone who wanted to claim the animal.
The matter came about when she lodged a police report following allegations by an animal lover that MPK had mistreated stray dogs before putting them down.
MPK, on its part, had countered it with a police report as well, saying that the local council had adhered to the government’s guidelines in the capture and euthanasia of stray dogs and that the process was certified as well by veterinary officers using approved medication.
Founder of AnimalCare Society, Dr Chan Kah Yein, said local councils used to allow registered animal welfare organisations to collect as many captured street animals as they wanted from the pounds free of charge.
She recalled spearheading four rescue missions from three local councils in Selangor in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2014 where the animals were given to her at no charge.
In a previous interview, Dr Chan voiced hope that the councils would at least release neutered street animals, caught and placed at their pound, free of charge to those who were feeding and managing them.
Former senior deputy director of the Department of Veterinary Services Dr Saravanakumar Supramaniam Pillai said during joint dialogues, local councils had shared that they stopped giving out captured dogs for free because some people had taken advantage of such a gesture.
“Some unethical ‘rescuers’ would rescue the dogs and then release them without neutering them, in spite of raising public funds to desex them.”
This came to light after dogcatchers discovered they were repeatedly catching dogs that had been “bailed out”, he said.Dr Saravanakumar explained that the imposition of the “bail” amount was to deter irresponsible rescuers from collecting the dogs from the pounds and releasing them indiscriminately.
“Unfortunately, the high compounds did not really work out as these unethical groups would raise even bigger amounts of public funds, yet still released the animals (to the streets) without neutering them,” he added.
Furry Friends Farm president Myza Nordin said that Dr Saravanakumar’s explanation, if indeed true, was distressing.
“This is not right. This could be why the population of street animals is exploding,” she said.
“The only way to overcome this is for donors, who have contributed towards the ‘bail’ amount and other subsequent costs, to ask for regular feedback and follow-ups on the dogs,’’ she added.
Myza said the local councils should monitor that the canines removed from their pounds were duly neutered by the rescuers as well as rescue groups.