LATEST KLANG POUND PICS

This poor dog's eye infection appears to be getting worse.

Donated food which was sent to the pound by MDDB through a friend. A pail filled with water was also placed in each holding cell. Hopefully the workers do not 'spoil' the food when they are spraying water into the cages to clean them-up.

A sad looking dog begging to be taken out of the pound.

Some of the dogs here - whose ribs can be clearly seen - were too weak to even eat.

Eating and drinking finally.

Thirsty dogs

We were told by a source that the Klang pound people only started getting leftovers from restaurants and the bread factory after starving dogs had started to eat dogs that had died in their enclosures. We suspect the stronger ones had also killed the sick ones in their desperation for food. Our friend who went there to feed the dogs, the food we had received, told us that the dogs had finished half a pail of water as soon as it was put into their enclosures.

Please people - please take a dog home each. It won't solve the problem but would send across the message that people care enough to do this. It will in turn push the local council people to embark on a more humane approach.

MIXED FEELINGS

Yesterday we were both proud and ashamed of being Malaysian. Proud because a PAS branch chairman called asking to contribute food to the dogs at the pound. He said his heart bled to see the faces of the dogs in the pictures posted here.
He said he was a very religious man and given this, it was both his moral and religious obligation to do whatever little he can to elevate the suffering of these dogs at the pound. Since he didn't know much about dog food - he asked us if we could meet him at a designated pet shop and help him buy the food.
At the same time we also received a call from an Irish expat who wanted to buy food for the pound dogs as well. He said he was shocked with what he had heard and seen and said that had this happened in Ireland, the pound managers and workers would have all been sent to jail. According to him some pound workers in his hometown were sentenced to six months jail each for abusing the dogs in the care by not giving them enough food and water.
He also said cruelty against animals by individuals existed in all parts of the world including his country but cruelty against animals by a government body was inexcusable. He said he loved living in Malaysia but the many instances of dog abuse by local councils left a bad taste in his mouth.
Anyway, since both wanted to do the same thing - we got them together and they combined their resources to buy dog food as well as some chew toys. This, they said would relieve the dogs of the stress at the pound.
Since there were almost a hundred dogs at the pound - MDDB bought more chew toys to be sent there. MDDB also bought six large containers and pails to be filled with water and food and placed at the pound. We were told these were insufficient and therefore will be sending six more basins and pails to the pound. Stay tuned.

DUH!

Our meeting with an MPK top honcho regarding the Klang pound dogs not being fed was an incredibly mind boggling experience.
Nothing came out of it other than one of us being barred from the pound for having taken a television station crew there on Saturday.
Now coming back to the meeting, the top honcho was defensive and offensive from the very beginning. There was also a lot of shouting which could have been avoided. Top Honcho is the person in charge of the department responsible for dog cathching. His boss is the Top Top Honcho and the boss in charge of these councils is the Top Top Top Honcho.
Here’s an example of what transpired.

Top Honcho: SPCA and SAS and FMM (?) know what we do and they have told us that we are doing an excellent job in the way we catch dogs. The SPCA had gone on rounds with us and has commended the way we do things. So why are you here?

MDDB: I am here because we are have no confidence…………..

Top Honcho: You have no confidence in the SPCA! Put that in writing.

MDDB: No, we have no confidence in……………

Top Honcho: You have no confidence in the SPCA! Put that in writing.

MDDB: Can you please let me finish my sentence! I am here because we have no confidence in the way MPK is managing the dogs in the pound. They have not been properly fed. You have to ensure that the dogs are properly fed and given enough water when in your custody.

Top Honcho: What do you mean that we are not feeding the dogs? We feed them daily. We get food from the restaurants to feed them.

MDDB: But from what we see, they are not getting any food- Most of the dogs are skin and bones and many have become sick. Even if you get leftovers from the restaurant, these may be very little or even rotten.

Top Honcho: They get good food from the restaurant. They eat the same kind of food that I eat daily.

MDDB: You eat restaurant leftovers and rotten food?

Top Honcho: No, we have an agreement with some restaurants and we ask them to make several packs of food, with which we feed the dogs.

MDDB: When we went there on Saturday, the enclosures were not yet cleaned and……………………………..

Top Honcho: Now you are complaining that the cages were not cleaned? What are you really complaining about?

MDDB: No, that is not my complaint – when we went there on Saturday the enclosures were not yet cleaned and……………….

Top Honcho: You are complaining that we didn’t clean the place?????

MDDB: Can you let me finish my sentence…………. when we went there on Saturday the enclosures were not yet cleaned and if the dogs had indeed been fed, there would be traces of food on the floor. There wasn’t – besides their feces and a little urine there the floor was ‘clean’ – there were no traces of food. The bowls in the enclosures did not have any water in them as well.

Top Honcho: You are complaining so much – why don’t you all do something to help and educate the people of Klang?

MDDB: We will definitely help. We will try to send food to the pound as often as we can and we can also have our events in Klang but we need a centralised location to conduct them – somewhere we can also bring our dogs. Would you allow us to use your Dewan Hamzah if we asked for it?

Top Honcho: What kind of an NGO are you? Don’t you know that you have to write in to ask for permission?

MDDB: That’s what I meant by asking. Will you allow us to bring dogs to Dewan Hamzah?

Top Honcho: Looks puzzled - If you want to bring dogs we will give you other locations. You know, the SPCA warned us about independent rescuers – the SPCA said they all have personal agendas.

MDDB: Are you saying that we have a personal agenda? What kind of personal agenda can rescuers have saving stray dogs?

Top Honcho: I am not saying you have an agenda. But the SPCA said the rescuers would take the beautiful dogs out, clean them-up and sell them for a profit.

MDDB: Well, MDDB makes it a point to mostly save dogs that are deemed hopeless and helpless. We whisk out a phone and show Top Honcho a picture of a mangy dog rescued from the pound. This is the type of dogs we usually get. Me make them whole again and find them homes.

Top Honcho: Where is the dog now?

MDDB: In a clinic.

Top Honcho: What are you going to do with it?

MDDB: Put it up for adoption or send it to a sanctuary or farm.

Top Honcho: you cannot keep it in your house.

MDDB: ???????


More to come……

Continuation.........

MDDB: I hope the dogs can be separated at the holding center - pets from strays so that there won't be a spread of disease

Top Honcho: We don't catch pets........we only catch strays

MDDB: But we saw a lot of dogs with collars

Top Honcho: We don't catch dogs with collars, we only catch dogs which have no owners

MDDB: There are dogs with collars there and people have been coming to 'bail out' their pets.

Top Honcho: (looking momentarily confused) We don't catch dogs with licences - there's a difference between collars and licences.

MDDB: ???????????

Top Honcho: I will go and check on your complaint that the dogs are not being fed.

MDDB: I hope you will not victimise your pound workers because they can only feed the dogs if you make food available.

Top Honcho: No, I will only speak to their supervisor telling him to feed the dogs more.


Meanwhile, our informant who has been staking out the pound tells us that leftover food is only available a few days once and this is more often than not leftovers from patrons' plates which is very little in quantity. The workers also go to a nearby bread factory to get discarded and rotten bread and this is also available once in a few days. Later in the evening we met the Top Top Top Honcho at a Christmas party and told him about what had happened. Top Top Top Honcho said that these are people who have never known dogs up close and personal and regarded them as rodents just like rats and roaches. He said it will take a long time to educate them but measures such as a proposed spay clinic in the locality will help towards curbing their bloodthirsty desire to exterminate every dog in their path.