Monday, September 13, 2010

WE ARE IN THE NEWS

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/9/12/nation/7022884&sec=nation

Sunday September 12, 2010
Spay and release strays, says NGO

PETALING JAYA: An animal rescue and welfare group wants local councils to spay strays and release them back to the streets.

Community Development and Integration Initiative (CDII) director Firoza Burhanudeen, whose organisation has launched two animal rescue and welfare projects, said this would be a more humane way of handling strays.

“It is time the Trap-Neuter-Release-Manage system is implemented. This is the most workable solution as opposed to the current practice by local councils of capturing and culling strays,” said Firoza.

She added that the large budget utilised by local councils to capture and cull could instead be used to implement such a programme.

“We are urging the Federal Government to look into this seriously before implementing it in local councils. We can provide all the necessary documentation and literature on the programme,” she said.

Under the programme, adult stray dogs and cats are captured, spayed and released back in the areas they are caught or relocated to places tolerant of them.

Since the animals have been spayed, there will be no increase in population until the animals have lived out their natural life.

Firoza said the current capturing and culling system was a failure and created a bad image for local councils and Malaysian authorities.

“Since we are running two rescue projects, we know that the capture and cull method is a waste of resources because it does not present a permanent solution,” she said.

The NGO runs both the Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better and the Malaysian Cats Care projects, which rescue and relocate strays.

The NGO is inviting those who want to know more about the programme to meet their representatives at the main entrance at Summit Subang Jaya from 11am today.


http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/9/13/central/6983824&sec=central

Monday September 13, 2010
Time to help strays


REALISING that animal rescue groups need as much help as possible, footwear company Crocs has come forward to partner with a recently launched feline welfare project to do its bit towards helping stray animals.

Crocs’ partnership with the Malaysian Cats Care Project (MCCP) is part of the company’s corporate and social responsibility programme.

MCCP is a feline welfare project initiated by non-governmental organisation Community Development and Integration Initiative (CDDI), which also helms the Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better (MDDB) canine welfare project.

The partnership was sealed during the soft launch of the MCCP project at the Summit Subang Jaya recently.

MDDB director Firoza Burhanudeen said they were happy that Crocs had come forward to help the recently launched feline welfare project.


She said it was a great challenge for both MCCP and MDDB to rescue and rehome the countless canines and felines they rescued almost daily.

“It is a never ending story and we know for a fact the situation will remain unchanged if the relevant authorities do not implement the Trap-Neuter-Release-Manage programme,’’ said Firoza.

Firoza hoped more companies would come forward to help CDII’s canine and feline welfare projects.

“We are working towards acquiring tax exemption status and hope this would get us more corporate sponsorship,’’ she added.

Firoza said MDDB was in urgent need of rice as well as puppy and dog food.

Under the partnership, Crocs would be providing free Crocs footwear for all MCCP/MDDB volunteers, custom-designed T-shirts for sale to raise funds, RM30 vouchers for those who adopt a cat, kitten, dog and non-woven bags will be given for adopters.

Crocs would also be placing collection boxes in all of its 24 Crocs Concept Stores nationwide until Dec 31 to collect funds for MCCP and MDDB.

CDDI also announced that MDDB and MCCP were teaming-up the Fire and Rescue Volunteers Malaysia (MVFRA) to start a training programme for rescuers.

The programme is aimed at teaching people on how to rescue trapped and injured animals effectively.

For details on how to help MDDB and MCCP, visit www.malaysiandogsdeservebetter.blogspot.com or call 019-357 6477 or 012-373 9007.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I'd just like to give my opinion on this. I think it's great that they are neutering/spaying strays, but to release it back to the streets, well, you don't take the problem away. The dogs might still pose as a nuisance, or worse, get run over by cars/abused by strangers. There are several aggressive dogs in my neighbourhood, I'm actually afraid of taking my dog out for walks because of them. My grandaunt got bitten by one of them (in the buttock, no less). They chase passers-by on foot, on bicycles, on motorbikes. Things like that.
I think that the best thing to do would be to obtain a piece of land from the government, place the neutered/spayed dogs there, and care for them there. It's ideal, yes, but they won't be threatened/pose as a threat!
Just my two cents.

Anonymous said...

We think getting a land would be ideal as well but unfortunately it would also cost a lot of money to do up a proper modern day pound. Dogs are only aggressive when they are territorial or hungry. Once they are spayed and made community dogs - these two factors would be removed - therefore they would co-exist with us without being a nuisance. There is no other option at the moment other than this to curtail the growth of the stray population in a humane way.