Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 9, 2015.

 

GEORGE TOWN: As Kedah, Penang and Perlis cull stray dogs to stem the spread of rabies, animal rescuer Mak Intan is finding dogs and cats abandoned at her shelter in Alor Setar.

Mak Intan, or Halijah Idris, 68, said the animals left at her Tanjung Bendahara shelter, especially dogs, were pets.

“With the rabies outbreak, the authorities are checking private premises, so some dog owners are fearful for their pets. They bring them to the shelter, the only place their dogs will not be killed,” she told The Malaysian Insider.

Mak Intan said one dog owner recently left a mother dog and a litter of pups at the shelter because he feared getting into trouble with the authorities for having too many dogs at home.

In the midst of a rabies outbreak, Mak Intan is not worried about the 650 dogs and more than 100 cats at the shelter, which is named after her late husband, Pak Mie (Muhammad Azmi Ismail) who died in March this year.

Every January, the shelter’s animals would get vaccinated, she said, and newcomers were always checked for health problems.

She said she handled the vaccinations and other minor health problems that crop up at the shelter.

“When I served in the army, I was in the medical unit. I can deal with minor wounds and injections,” she said, adding that her do-it-yourself approach saved a lot on visits to vets.

Mak Intan said she is angry about the mass culling of stray dogs in Perlis, Kedah and Penang.

“It is cruel. It is fine if they cull the ones sick with rabies, or those that bit people. But do they need to kill the other dogs that didn’t do anything? Pregnant dogs and puppies, too? Do they not have compassion as human beings?”

Up to Wednesday, Kedah had culled 1,732 dogs but vaccinated 2,476 others, based on the Department of Veterinary Services’ report. In the 106 samples taken from the culled dogs, 18 came back positive for rabies. — The Malaysian Insider

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