Dog shooting will stop immediately - Datuk Rahim

Picture: Anthony Siva Balan Thanasayan, President of Pets People Positive Living giving a memorandum to Datuk Rahim to stop dog shooting with immediate effect.

IPOH: The Ipoh City Council will implement a ban on all shooting of stray animals with immediate effect.

Speaking to reporters after meeting council secretary Datuk Abdul Md Ariff yesterday, Petpositive president T. Anthony Siva Balan said the council has agreed to stop shooting strays and would use other methods to deal with them.

"The council will send its officers to their counterpart in Petaling Jaya to learn dog catching methods by next week," said Anthony Siva Balan, who is also MBPJ local councillor.

"They are also studying the possibility of setting up an animal pound to keep animals that were caught from the streets," he said.

Anthony Siva Balan said the council would work closely with the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in dealing with strays.

"A committee set up by the council will have meetings later to discuss further on neutering and spaying the animals," he added.

Anthony Siva Balan also said that there was a misconception that the city council hates dogs.

"Nobody likes killing dogs. The council just did not know how to approach the problem with stray animals," he said.

He added that the Datuk Bandar or a representative from the council would visit the 75-year-old owner of Spunk, the therapy dog which was killed by council dog catchers late last month to apologise for the unfortunate incident.

"Spunk's sacrifice was not in vain," said Anthony Siva Balan. "It is a victory of sort for pet lovers and they can finally sleep soundly knowing that their pets are safe from being shot at," he added.
On Oct 29, the 10-year-old Spunk was shot dead after its owner left it unattended for a while to get toilet paper to clean after the animal.

The killing of the animal had drawn flaks from numerous NGOs, calling for immediate ban on dog shooting.

Noah's Ark Ipoh founder and treasurer Dr Ranjit Kaur Mendhir said she was delighted that things have worked well after the meeting.

Earlier, several NGOs, including Petpositive, Noah's Ark Ipoh and the Ipoh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals jointly handed over a memorandum to ban animal shooting to Abdul Md Ariff.