Following alleged animal cruelty at a local council-run animal pound that recently caused an outcry among animal lovers nationwide, the authorities involved have met to thrash out the possible issues.
Yesterday, representatives from the Kuala Lumpur City Hall Health Department met with representatives from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) over allegations that staff at the council’s pound in Air Panas, Setapak had purportedly strangled dogs and drowned cats to death while euthanising them — as reported in Malay Mail on Feb 5.
The council’s representatives had earlier denied the allegations and said the footage aired by TV3’s 360 programme on Feb 4 — showing a council staff dragging a weak dog by its neck across the ground — was merely the tail-end of a process.
The SPCA, however, has made it clear to City Hall that it would immediately withdraw its neutering clinic from the animal pound in Setapak should the allegations be proven true.
"If the allegations are true, and for now that is what they are — allegations — then we (SPCA neutering clinic) cannot stay," SPCA chairman Christine Chin told Malay Mail after the meeting.
She said it was possible that what an outsider might have seen to be strangulation was merely images of a council staff holding onto a struggling dog with a loop around its neck while it was being led away.
On a more positive note, Chin reported that City Hall had agreed to adhere to the DVS guidelines, issued last May, on more humane methods for the euthanisation of animals.
This includes anaesthetising aggressive or struggling animals before putting them down, appointing a qualified veterinarian to oversee the euthanasia procedure and for it to be administered intravenously via the paws instead of injecting the animal through the heart, as was previously practised.
"There is nothing humane about euthanasia as you are taking away a life. But, if it is really necessary, then at least carry it out with minimal stress and pain to the animal," Chin said, noting with approval the DVS guidelines called for the animal’s welfare to be given priority at all times.
City Hall was also in the final stages of pushing for a by-law requiring micro-chipping for all pet dogs in Kuala Lumpur and the enforcement of differential licensing, she said.
Chin explained with differential licensing, the licence cost for dogs which have been neutered or spayed would be significantly less than for dogs which had yet to undergo the procedure.
This would discourage irresponsible pet ownership, where the trend was for the owner to allow their dog to roam free or abandon their dogs, which may reproduce and increase the stray dog dilemma.
"Micro-chipping has a two-way effect as the council can identify the owners of strays picked up based on information on the chip and fine them. The council will also be able to detect if dog-catchers have trespassed outside their jurisdiction for the sake of catching more strays.
"We are in a new era of responsibility, transparency, accountability, and reality in which there can be no more excuses," Chin said.
Also, DVS representatives promised to look into SPCA’s proposal for the bodies of euthanised animals to be cremated instead of buried, she said, after it was reported demonstrators outside the Setapak pound on Saturday found the bodies of several animals buried in several shallow graves there.
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