Rest in peace little pup

At the pound

Sharing a cage with two puppies that had tested positive for distemper.

This little Klang Pound pup died of distemper recently at the clinic where we had admitted it. The puppy had tested negative on the day it was brought to us but tested positive several days later. We believe that it had been infected by other puppies on the day it was rescued. This is an example of how deadly the distemper virus can be. Given this - we have to be careful when rescuing the pound puppies by separating those taken from within the enclosures with those from outside the enclosures. We have received three more puppies and they are all infected with parvo and corona virus. We hope they pull through.

TRIBUTE

ANGELS ON EARTH

WE would like to usher in 2010 by paying tribute to all the independent rescuers who have over the years saved the lives of many dogs and cats that had crossed their paths. They have been doing what they do best, without seeking publicity nor glory, simply because it is their calling to save the strays. To these angels on earth - MDDB salutes you. MDDB is inspired by all of you special people who would not leave any stone unturned in your quest to help the strays.

So, Joanne, Leigh, Christine, Rina, Ah Kiew, Aunty Mary, Eileen, Irene, Kay, Sam, Jovi, Ganesh Nicole, Vani, Mano, Erica, Chong, Kanna, Fatimah, Pat, Sabrina, Raymond, Mohan, Karin and many others who have been there for the poor strays -

THANK YOU

And this tribute would not be a tribute proper if due credit is not given to Sherrina Krishnan who made public the noble work being carried out by the independent rescuers.


This is dedicated to all of you.


THE RESCUERS' RAINBOW BRIDGE


Unlike most days on Rainbow Bridge, this day dawned cold and gray, damp as a swamp and as dismal as could be imagined. All of the recent arrivals had no idea what to think, as they had never experienced a day like this before. But the animals who had been waiting for their beloved people knew exactly what was going on and had started to gather at the pathway leading to The Bridge to watch.

It wasn't long before an elderly dog came into view, head hung low and tail dragging. the other animals, the ones who had been there for a while, knew what his story was right away, for they had seen this happen far too often.

He approached slowly, obviously in great emotional pain but with no sign of injury or illness. Unlike all of the other animals waiting at The Bridge, this dog had not been restored to youth and made healthy and vigorous again. As he walked towards, The Bridge he watched all the other animals watching him. He knew he was out of place here and the sooner he could cross over, the happier he would be. But, alas, as he approached The Bridge, his way was barred by the appearance of an Angel, who apologised but told the broken-spirited old dog that he would not be able to pass. Only animals who were with their humans could pass over Rainbow Bridge.

With nobody and no place else to turn to, the elderly dog turned towards the fields before The Bridge and saw a group of other animals like himself, also elderly and infirm as well as sad and discouraged. They weren't playing but simply lying on the green grass, forlornly staring at the pathway leading to The Bridge. And so he took his place among them, watching the pathway and waiting.

One of the newest arrivals at The Bridge, a dog, did not understand what he had just witnessed and asked another dog that had been there for a while to explain the situation to him.

"You see, that old dog was a rescue. He was rescued looking like how you see him now, an older animal with his fur graying and his eyes clouding. He never found a family after being rescued and passed on with only the love shown by his rescuer to comfort him as he left his earthly existence. Because he had no family that had given him love, he has no one to escort him over The Bridge.''

The dog thought about this for a moment and then asked - "So what will happen now?''
As he was about to receive his answer, the clouds suddenly parted and the gloom disappeared.

A single person was seen approaching The Bridge and the whole group of destitute animals waiting outside the pathway to The Bridge were suddenly bathed in a golden light. They all became young and healthy and in the prime of their lives again.

"Watch and see,'' said the second animal. Another group of animals who were waiting within the pathway to The Bridge also approached the person and bowed low as she appeared. At each bowed head, the person offered a pat or a scratch behind the ears. The destitute animals, who had been waiting outside the pathway to The Bridge, followed the person to The Bridge. Once there they all crossed The Rainbow Bridge together.

"What happened?''

"That was a rescuer. The animals you saw bowing in respect were those who found new homes because of her efforts. They will cross when their humans arrive. Those you saw waiting outside the pathway to The Bridge were those who never found homes. When a rescuers arrives here, they are allowed to carry out one final rescue. They are allowed to escort those poor animals , that they couldn't rehome on earth, across The Rainbow Bridge.

"I think I like rescuers,'' said the first dog.

" So does Heaven, my friend. So does Heaven,'' was the reply.

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.

Who feeds the dogs?

We had our little gathering at the pound but almost all of us were very late because we couldn’t find our way to the place. Anyway, the sight that greeted us was heart-wrenching and all of us left the place feeling desolate and frustrated because we couldn’t do much for the poor dogs. They were lying in the own feces and urine with nothing to drink and eat.

Some were breathing heavily, indicating that they were suffering from lung infection or pneumonia whilst some others appeared to be too weak to even move. There were also dogs which had open wounds.
We brought three large bags of dog biscuits and fed the starving dogs as soon as we got there. We also had a television crew with us because we wanted MPK to realize that not feeding the dogs at the pound was morally wrong. Soon after the television crew had finished the job, I called the MPK health director, who was not contactable, the whole of last week. Surprisingly, he picked-up the phone after the second ring this time around.

He was furious and said the local council by-laws did not have provisions to feed the dogs. “We are not a shelter but a holding center,’’ he said. In short, he was telling us that MPK was not obligated to feed the dogs. That MPK did not care if these poor animals starved to death. However, he has forgotten that the Department of Veterinary Services’ guidelines strictly stipulate that dogs have to be given food and water and ensured a clean environment pending euthanasia.

Given that the Veterinary Services Department is a federal body and the local councils are the lowest rung of the administrative system – the local councils have to adhere to what has been stipulated by the DVS in regard to the catching and management of strays.
We will be meeting this person on Monday and hopefully he gets the picture. Meanwhile, one of the dogs that were not in the enclosure followed us out of the compound and we brought her back.

The dogs were 'calling out to us' and some tried to desperately wriggle out of the enclosure. One young dog stood on the sill all the time we were there. It broke our hearts to see them like that.

We couldn’t remove any of the other dogs because we had to make arrangements with the MPK to pay the compound. Anyway, the dogs we brought back tested negative for parvo, corona and distemper but tested positive for the pregnancy test. So, she is currently at a foster home until we find her a permanent home.

Besides this dog, we also have with us 20 puppies and 2 dogs that was give to us by MyAnimalCare. Several have been sent to foster homes and two distemper/parvo puppies had to be dispatched to Gemas, which is located at the Negri Sembilan-Johor border, where a family had volunteered to take care of them.

We hope that some of you reading this can atleast take one of the pound dogs under your care. Let us know and we will make the necessary arrangements.

PUP

This poor puppy was skin and bones when MyAnimalCare brought her to us from the Klang pound. She must have had very little to eat and must have been drinking contaminated water, that is why her urine was bloody. She was also infected with parvo and distemper. Given her condition, the poor pup only lasted several days and our only consolation is that she was well taken care off for a day or two by her fosterer Mandy before the inevitable happened.