KLANG: Initiating legal action against the Besut District Council (MDB) over the shooting of street dog Kopi may hit several roadblocks, says a lawyer.
Dinesh Muthal, who is also the People's Legal Team founder, said the main issue would revolve around the lack of locus standi (legal standing).
“One has to have the right and interest in the matter to be able to initiate action.
“So instead of a large group of people or a collection of organisations, it would be best for just a single registered animal welfare organisation to be named as plaintiff," said Dinesh.
He added the selection of the organisation must also be done with care as the court may want to know if the organisation has the right to challenge the matter.
Dinesh said the case would be thrown out if locus standi cannot be proven.
MDB caused public outcry after shooting the local four-legged sweetheart Kopi.
Kopi became a celebrity of sorts after one of her feeders Abby Razali uploaded a video of the dog playing with a kitten on TikTok in March this year.
Retired Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mah Weng Kwai said he believed there was a legal provision for street animals to be shot.
“But only as a last-ditch effort and under emergency circumstances.
“A fact-finding inquiry should be held so that detailed guidelines can be set," said Mah, a former Suhakam commissioner.
Mah was also of the opinion that the court may grant locus standing in a class action if a group can show a ‘breach of public interest’ in the shooting.
In its defence, MDB had said that it had gone by the book in initiating the shooting exercise early last week in its depopulation exercise.
Meanwhile, Dr Saravanakumar Supramaniam Pillai, who was part of the team which crafted the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) 2015, it was time for local councils to update their by-laws that are quite archaic.
He added that the by-laws must be amended to be in tandem with AWA as well as the current times.
