Nothing says “disbelief” more than how we felt when we saw a “Kempen 1 Anjing 10 Ringgit” poster being widely shared on Facebook late yesterday.
The Majlis Daerah Tanjong Malim (Tanjung Malim District Council) posted up the controversial dog-catching poster on their Facebook page for a campaign that was supposed to run starting today (Wednesday, 3rd June) until 12th June. It was meant to encourage the public to catch stray dogs, with the council offering to pay RM10 per animal. Hence the name, “1 Anjing 10 Ringgit” (“One Dog 10 Ringgit”).
The (now removed) poster was widely shared on social media, including Facebook as well as cross-platform messaging app, WhatsApp. In case you missed it, here:
As seen in the poster above, there are “terms and conditions” for the campaign, such as the dog has to be alive and that pet owners aren’t allowed to hand over their own canines.
Needless to say, it caused quite a ruckus on social media.
However, according to The Star Online, quick action by 2 good Samaritans, the Ipoh Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals (ISPCA) and state executive councillor Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon, managed to halt the campaign just in the nick of time. They’ve also possibly saved hundreds of dogs in the Tanjung Malim district from untimely deaths.
ISPCA president Ricky Soong called Dr Mah for help, explaining that it was not the right way to go about dealing with stray dogs.
He said:
Dr Mah assured me that he would help and by 11pm, I saw that all posts on the campaign had been deleted from the district council’s Facebook page. At about midnight, the poster on the campaign was taken down from the district council’s website and not long after at about 1am, it announced that the campaign was cancelled, to my relief.
He also added, “I do understand that the district council’s intention is to deal with the problem of strays but its method is just too cruel. I’m sure they were going to put the dogs to sleep instead of neutering or spaying them as to do so would cost them between RM100 and RM150 per animal.”
In another report by The Star Online, Noah’s Ark Ipoh (NAI) will meet Tanjung Malim District Council officials next week to propose a neutering campaign in place of the council’s aborted “One Dog 10 Ringgit” campaign.
Its founder, Dr Ranjit Kaur Mendhir said that NAI, with help from other private veterinarians in the state, would help the council formulate a “Trap-Neuter-Release-Manage” (TNRM) campaign in the district.
Sources: The Star Online (1), The Star Online (2).
