Gripevine

ONE of the most potent dangers a dog is likely to face in its lifetime, besides physical abuse is poisoning. Whether a dog is owned or a stray, poisoning is always a clear and present danger. Stray dogs are more likely targets, as they are constantly scavenging for food and a tasty piece of meat is not easy to resist when you don't know where your next meal is coming from. That being said, many beloved pet dogs have also fallen victim to poisoning from neighbours who don't like the presence of dogs in their neighbourhood, people who might dislike the dog's owner or simply very cruel people who hate dogs. In fact the poisoning of dogs is way too common for comfort, as it is the easiest way for an unscrupulous person to get rid of an unwanted dog without being found out. Just walk or drive by in the dark of the night, throw the lethal piece of meat, and the deed is done. Throw a stone, and you're likely to hit a person who has had a dog poisoned, kno...

ON  August 30, I saw a post by a friend on my Facebook timeline that made my day. An FB user who goes by the name Eddie Fendy Mkah posted that he offers taxi services to blind people with guide dogs. This is a screenshot of the Facebook post. In any other country or any other situation, no one would have batted an eyelid if they came across this post. But this is Malaysia, and animal lovers here, both non-Muslims and Muslims are fighting an arduous battle against the huge bias and fear of dogs in Malaysian society. So deep rooted is this fear and lack of understanding of man's best friend that in May this year, visually impaired Stevens Chan was asked to leave a mall because he had his faithful guide dog Lashawn in tow. After being told to leave, he could not even get a cab home, because the drivers did not want a dog in their cab. In light of the problems faced by Chan which shone a harsh spotlight on the plight of the visually impaired, Eddie's post went viral...

EVEN if they die many times over, it would not be enough." This is what a survivor of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime that plunged the country into its darkest era ever, said when two senior members of the regime were sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday, Aug 7, 2014, for crimes against humanity more than 30 years ago. Naturally its scant justice, for Khieu Samphan is 83 and Nuon Chea, 88. Pol Pot the main leader of the Khmer Rouge died in the jungles of Cambodia in 1998. As I write this, many former Khmer Rouge commanders are still free and will likely never be brought to justice. In 2009, I went to Siem Reap with a group of friends to view the iconic Angkor Wat. The initial plan was to spend four days and three nights in the tourist hub, but after some deliberation, we decided that a trip to Cambodia would not be complete without taking in all of its history, so we took a ferry to Phnom Penh to visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. I have never shared the photos f...

WHEN you're a guide dog in Malaysia, being able to walk into a mall and not get kicked out is a big deal indeed. In fact it is such an achievement that it would warrant some amount of media coverage which it did. Breakthrough for the blind as guide dog is allowed into mall Lashawn however has been creating history ever since he landed in Malaysia. For starters this professionally trained Labrador is the first-ever guide dog for the visually impaired permitted into the country. Can you believe it? After all these years of economic progress, having the world's tallest building and what not, and we did not even have something as basic as trained guide dogs for the disabled. Lashawn and his master Stevens Chan the CEO and founder of Dialogue in the Dark (DID) as well as Save Ones Sight Mission Bhd (SOS Mission) and Malaysia Glaucoma Society are out to change all that through the "Dogs for Sight" campaign. DID ( www.did.my ) is committed to bridging the ...

SOMETIMES it just takes one incident to shine a harsh spotlight on how unevolved we are as a society. In this case it was a simple experiment undertaken by a man on a mission to provide sight and mobility to the blind via guide dogs. The man in question is Stevens Chan the founder of Malaysia Glaucoma Society (MGS) who took his guide dog Lashawn - who is Malaysia's first and only guide dog for the blind (A professionally trained labrador who is the first ever guide dog permitted in the country) to a mall in an exercise to gauge public response as part of Chan's Dogs for Sight Campaign . What happened during that exercise was reported in the malay mail online on May 24, 2014 and outraged netizens when the article made its rounds on social media. Man's best friend not loved by everyone Besides being asked to leave the mall, Chan was also unable to get a cab home because the drivers insisted that animals were not allowed in cabs. What followed next was a fl...

LAST month the reputation of the Johor Baru Central Municipal Council (MPJBT) took a beating when a video surfaced on Facebook showing enforcement staff bludgeoning stray dogs to death. Under fire, MPJBT called a halt to ongoing operations to round up stray dogs and promised to come up with a more humane approach to tackle the issue of stray dogs. A little more than a month later, the council announced its solution - private dog catchers who will put the dogs down with lethal injection. The private dog catching company would charge the council RM100 per animal. All strays will be photographed and documented before the company makes a claim with the council Read about it here   http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/07/15/MPJBT-engages-private-company-to-put-down-stray-dogs/ The decision however did little to redeem MPJBT's reputation among animal lovers. Within minutes of the article being posted on Facebook, netizens reacted with outrage. Many expressed ...

The cruelty that was inflicted on Brianna, and old and partially blind Rottweiler, led animal lover Tina Yusman to start an  online petition called Justice For Brianna. The petition which garnered 126, 596 signatures from throughout the world was sent to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak on May 23, 2014 via email and also on Facebook. Tina also drafted a memorandum to Najib highlighting other recent animal cruelty incidents in the country and urges him to do something about it. The memorandum was also emailed to the media. I decided to highlight Tina's efforts here, in the hopes that it will inspire other animal lovers out there to lobby for change as well. To all those out there who believe that animals deserve better, you are not one voiceless person who doesn't count. When you speak up, you speak for all of us, let us all be more vocal in future in gunning for change where animal welfare is concerned. We are not a minority, we are a majority, and le...

Fifteen individuals and four non-governmental organisations lodged reports at the Skudai police station on June 11, 2014, against MPJBT. NST PIX On June 5 a video was uploaded on Facebook showing enforcement personnel from the Johor Baru Central Municipal Council (MPJBT) bludgeoning stray dogs to death with metal rods. Now this is not the first reported incident of cruelty against stray dogs by the local councils, and I fear it won't be the last. Once the heat is off the council, in this case MPJBT, the "old ways" of dealing with the strays will surface once more until a new incident comes to light. As such I felt that it would be best to document all the media reports on this particular case. The objective of this post is to serve as a reference point to all the articles and accompanying links on the "Bludgeoning of the Skudai strays". June 8, 2014 Killing of dogs a 'mistake', council admits responsibility http://www.thestar.com.m...