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.