Foreign Workers In Malaysia Eating Puppies

THE STAR NEWSPAPER June 25, 2008
Foreign workers eating dog meat
By WANI MUTHIAH


KLANG: Stray puppies are ending up as meals for foreign construction workers keen on reducing their food bills.

Indonesian construction worker Wagang Saring said the high prices of food and the need to send as much money to families back home had forced him and his friends to eat pooches.

“Puppies are the best as their meat is tender,” said the 37-year-old Saring. “The meat gives us energy to work at construction sites. Three puppies will do for five men.”

Saring was approached by The Star at a petrol kiosk in Bukit Tinggi after he was seen hitting a puppy with a piece of wood.

He knocked out the puppy with two blows and carried it back to his kongsi where his friends had already built a fire.

Fellow Indonesian worker Marcel Jeheta, 30, said the large number of stray dogs in Klang provided ample supply of meat.

Jeheta, who comes from Flores Island, said dog meat was a popular source of protein back home.

“Dog meat is widely eaten in Flores Island and we continue the practice in Malaysia,” he said.

A check around the construction site found many dogs, mostly females, that appeared to have littered recently . But there were no puppies in sight.

Cleaner Suriyati Norsalim, 40, from central Jawa, was quick to point out that only some Indonesians ate dog meat.

“Only those from Flores Island, who are not Muslims, and some non-Muslim Bataks (from Sumatra) eat dog meat,” she added.

Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Thu, 25, who works at a factory in Klang, said she noticed her countrymen eating more dog meat recently.

She said dog meat was a popular delicacy in Vietnam.

Animal welfare activist Sabrina Yeap said dog eating was gaining momentum among foreign workers because there was no law against it. “It is not illegal and so no action can be taken against those who do so,” she added.

Yeap, who manages the canine sanctuary Furry Friends Farm, said it was time the Government banned dog eating as it involved inhumane killing methods.

Macaque monkey in captivity at Ming Tien foodcourt

Below is a report from Davina Goh. Davina has since sent off her report to the Department of Wildlife. I admire her tenacity and we have to keep trying although our experience has shown us that complaining to the Wildlife Department, DVS, municipal councils are like talking to brick walls. As long as the BN government is in power I don't see how this is going to change. But we the people will keep speaking up! Well done, Davina Goh!

I went to have dinner at the Ming Tien food court in Taman Megah with my mom and sister at about 9pm. When we were done, we were heading toward the right corner exit when we had then noticed a small cage next to the last stall (labelled 'PORRIDGE'), mostly blocked from view by metal blocks.

Upon closer inspection, my sister and I realized that there was a small macaque monkey inside, jumping against the walls of the cage.

It started getting more frantic to reach out to my sister and I as we peered inside. I asked the hawker manning the porridge stall if the monkey was meant to be eaten. He said it was just a pet that belonged to the 'boss' of Ming Tien.



My sister and I supposed that the monkey wasn't brought to the food court every day, since it wasn't there the last couple of times we ate there.



Regardless, I was shocked - not only was the monkey in obvious distress, but for him to be kept within a vicinity that dealt with food and beverage... as if the hygiene factor of a food court could get any more alarming than that. I fetched my camera from my house and returned to the food court, my sister deciding to accompany me too. The hawker guy I had previously spoken to had noticed my camera, and to make for some 'picture perfect' moments, he decided to 'play' with the monkey.


He teased him by waving his hand outside the cage, just beyond the monkey's reach, as the monkey leaped and flailed about, trying to grasp a hand that could possibly get him out of that hot, greasy, humid hellhole. The hawker guy was savouring the monkey's helplessness, grinning like a cheeky little boy. When I was done, I thanked him, and my sister and I stormed off with the worst taste in our mouths than any simian-tainted congee could possibly deliver.















I've just sent out a report to the enforcement division of the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks, who will check if the Ming Tien boss has a license to keep the monkey or not. If he doesn't, I assume that the monkey will be confiscated from him. If he does have a license, then the most the Department will do is slap him with a teensy fine for not following the guidelines of pet monkey ownership, and close the case.



I don't know what the young monkey's fate will be, but I'm doing what I can, and for his sake, I'm not stepping into that disgusting place that is Ming Tien for the rest of my days. Amid the crowd-pulling lights and bustling atmosphere is an overbearing ignorance, a lack of respect, a degradation of universal morals.

It's just a monkey, sure. But that's more than what anyone needs to deduce the demented nature of a businessman that is so caught up in his power as a human being
that he can use a wild animal as a trophy pet or cheap gimmick, and not see any wrong in it. Such filth!

Davina Goh
http://retardationation.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Davina_Goh/516341135

World Animal Day October 4

Could you help us promote World Animal Day by including a link on your website – ideally on your home page! Perhaps you could also include it in your newsletter if you have one. By adding a simple link to the website, you will be encouraging many more organisations and individuals to visit the site, be inspired and ‘get involved’.

If you visit www.worldanimalday.org.uk and go to the resources section, you will find instructions on how to create a link to the website. It’s pretty straightforward and should only take up a few minutes of your time, but the benefits of getting the message out to a wider audience will be huge.