It’s ruff out there

Struggling to survive: Some of the dogs left at the Papan landfill can be seen wandering near the Ipoh-Lumut Highway. – IVAN LOH/The Star

IT IS no longer sustainable for Ipoh City Council to continue catching stray dogs and later dumping them near the Papan landfill, say several animal welfare groups.

The number of stray dogs dumped there has tripled since 2020 and as food is scarce, many of these animals venture out to nearby residential areas.

If the dogs are lucky, they will be fed by members of animal welfare groups but many have ended up dead on the streets.

PapanSouls (PS) president S. Keshturi said most of the dogs dumped near the landfill were healthy.

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“When we started our work, there were only about 70 dogs. Now, there are about 250.

“As most of these dogs were caught in residential areas, they would walk out to Ipoh-Lumut Highway until they see a place that looks like a housing estate where they can find food,” she said, adding that PS was set up to take care of stray dogs at the landfill.

“When they are not looking for food or mating, you will hardly see them on the road.

“They will usually find a place to hide and sleep,” she added.

The big number of strays wandering near the Papan landfill area is causing conflict between humans and animals. — Photo: RONNIE CHIN/The Star

Keshturi said it would usually take time for newly dumped dogs to adapt to the area near the landfill.

“It’s the survival of the fittest out there. If they cannot adapt to the area, they will roam outside and come to harm,” she said.

ALSO READ: Ipoh mayor: Let city council deal with stray dogs

So far this year, about 50 dogs in Ipoh have reportedly been found dead, mostly believed to be due to poisoning.

About 30 of the animals were found dead at Lahat Mines, which is about 4km from the landfill.

The city council has been dumping strays near the landfill since 2017 but Keshturi said the “area is not a haven for stray dogs just because PS is there to feed and take care of them daily.”

“From January until July, we buried more than 65 carcasses.

“Most died after getting hit by heavy vehicles along the highway while some died of illnesses,” she said, adding that 120 puppies and vulnerable dogs from the area were kept at a safe house.

“We also have another team bringing in clean water thrice a week to refill the water tubs.

“Apart from feeders, we also have two other teams, PS Rescue Team and Gerak Khas Team, with the first group focussing on trapping the ones that need medical attention while the other traps females mainly to get them spayed,” she said.

“From January to June this year, we have spayed and neutered 38 dogs near the landfill,” said Keshturi.

Noah’s Ark Ipoh (NAI) founder and adviser Dr Ranjit Kaur said dumping dogs near the landfill was not a solution as the city council was not providing food and shelter.

“I think it is a waste of ratepayers’ money (to catch and dump).

“When dogs are fearful and hungry, they move to neighbouring housing estates looking for food,” she said.

“And out of fear and intolerance, people will poison these dogs,” she added.

Gurdip Singh, 57, who feeds stray dogs at Lahat Mines, said the area where the dogs were dumped near the landfill should be fenced up to prevent them from getting out.

The retired businessman said he believed it was one way to prevent conflict between the animals and humans.

“Currently the dogs are able to run out,” he said, adding that he started feeding the dogs about five years ago.

Gurdip said there used to be about 50 strays at Lahat Mines.

“After the latest incident where we found two dead dogs, who were believed to have been poisoned, only about 36 are left.

“The dogs are very friendly,” he said, adding that they preferred to stay around the shophouses.

Dr Ranjit concurred with Gurdip on the need to fence up the area near the landfill.

Perhaps, the area could be partitioned, she said.

“They can separate the dogs which have owners and can be returned,” said Gurdip.

Keshturi, however, did not believe that it was sustainable to fence up the area near the landfill.

“I think it is just a temporary solution to a long-term problem.

“When I attended a meeting with the state Veterinary Services Department director some time back, he said Ipoh had the highest number of strays in Malaysia, which was about 20,000.

“Say, we just take a quarter of the figure, which is about 5,000 animals in a fenced-up area, we will need lots of funds and manpower to handle them,” she added.

Possible solutions

Gurdip also suggested that the state government set up a shelter at the former Rare Earth plant in Bukit Merah.

“The place has been abandoned for a long time,” he said, adding that it should be big enough to house stray dogs.

Gurdip also said he was preparing a memorandum to be presented to the Perak Mentri Besar on ways to reduce the stray population in the state, particularly Ipoh.

“We need to bring all the NGOs together to form a federation in order to resolve this issue.

“There are many people willing to volunteer to help strays,” he said.

Keshturi believed that mass neutering of stray dogs was the only way forward.

“I see lots of these dogs are well-fed but not neutered,” she said.

“Spaying a female dog costs about RM160 while neutering a male is about RM120.

“Subsidies should be provided by the government to spay or neuter these animals,” she added.

Dr Ranjit said NAI got a lot of calls to do rescue work, provide shelter, neuter the dogs and also respond to the killing or poisoning of these animals.

“People expect us to solve these problems but we lack manpower and funds,” she said.

“NGOs, rescuers and feeders should work together to resolve this issue,” she added.

Dr Ranjit also said the state should provide subsidies to feed and neuter the stray dogs.

Ipoh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISCPA) president Ricky Soong said two approaches needed to be taken concurrently.

Soong said one was to continue conducting the trap, neuter, release and manage (TNRM) method with the city council.

“Dogs that we have neutered or spayed will be put up for adoption, and if there are no takers, they will be released back to where they were caught.

“The dogs will also be embedded with a microchip that contains information of its feeder or carer, and given a red collar for identification so they will not be captured by city council enforcement officers,” he said, adding that TNRM had been conducted since 2017 with about 6,500 stray dogs neutered or spayed to date.

“We have a standard operating procedure in place whereby dogs will not be released in an area if there are no carers or feeders to look after them or if the animals are not welcomed there.

“The second approach is for the city council to make it compulsory for owners to put the microchip into their pets as one of the criteria for getting a licence,” he said.

“If a pet is abandoned, the city council can trace the owners.”

He said some people might not like that spayed or neutered dogs were being released back to where they were caught.

“I believe shelters run by NGOs, including ours, are already at maximum capacity.

“Unless there are those willing to adopt the dogs, I don’t see any other options,” he said.

Soong said it was not viable to continue catching and dumping dogs near the landfill.

“If the city council catches 60 dogs a month, that comes up to about 720 dogs a year.

“Over three years, there will be over 2,000 dogs near the landfill,” he pointed out.

“How can feeders or NGOs cope with that?” he asked.

When contacted, state housing, local government and tourism committee chairman Datuk Nolee Ashilin Mohamed said the state had formed a stray and wandering animals committee to look into related issues.

She said the committee was co-chaired with state plantations, agriculture and food industries committee chairman Razman Zakaria.

“We have held a series of meetings and workshops on how to address these issues.

“Among the things that were discussed were response time on complaints, beefing up enforcement, new licensing initiatives and enhancing collaboration with NGOs.

“Once everything is in place, we will introduce these new initiatives and standard operating procedure to handle strays and wandering animals,” she added.