Ipoh Dog Shooting. Why Was a Meat Hook Used On A Live Dog?

Below is RSC's letter published in the STAR newspaper on Friday, October 20, 2006. It is a follow up on the story of Ipoh Town Council officers who went to a school and shot a harmless dog, sleeping behind the toilet. They did not kill the dog on the first shot and it was wailing in pain. Instead they used a meat hook on the live dog to carry it away.

All this was reported by a student from the school, whose letter was published in the STAR newspaper on October 2nd, 2006 (Please see post below entitled More Barbaric Acts By Council Officers)

TREAT DOGS AS GOD'S CREATURES WORTHY OF RESPECT

I REFER to your report, “Council to stop killing stray dogs” (The Star, Oct 18).

Ipoh mayor Datuk Mohamad Rafiai Mokhtar was reported to have said the Ipoh City Council would use tranquillisers instead of bullets from now.

That does not mean the council will stop killing stray dogs. It may still put them down and anyone who has seen the deplorable conditions of council pounds will surely question whether these animals are put down humanely.

All the mayor is doing is allowing the council to continue with its atrocities behind closed doors so the public will not be “offended.”

The comment by the Ipoh chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that shooting strays is messy and bloody and traumatises children is not helpful.

It should, instead, have asked the mayor why a meat hook was used on a live dog in a recent incident? Why isn’t anybody addressing this question?

The student who wrote to The Star on Oct 2, reporting the incident was the only one to actually talk about the dog as a precious creature worth consideration.

Everybody else is talking about it like an intangible irritant to be disposed off with the least inconvenience to society.

This student gave the dog a character and identity when she wrote that it was loving, not aggressive and well-liked by the students.

Until we learn to see animals, like this student does, as individual lives created by God, worthy of respect and dignity, we shall never resolve the problem of strays in a humane manner.

This student was absolutely right when she said this incident “highlighted the depravity of humans.”