IPOH: The Ipoh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) has filed an originating summons against the Ipoh City Council and Perak Government, seeking declarations on whether the disposal of dogs that were shown in a video that emerged in July here was done legally.
The originating summons was filed through lawyer Cheang Lek Choy at the High Court here on Nov 17.
Cheang said he and ISPCA president Ricky Soong served the notices to the defendants on Nov 24.
"The first defendant (city council) has already engaged a lawyer.
"Mention for the case has been set on Dec 22 via Zoom," he said in a press conference called by Soong here on Friday (Dec 12).
"We believe the defendants would want to strike the originating summons out," he added.
Cheang said the ISPCA is seeking three declarations, with the first being whether the city council's action of killing, as shown in the video, has contravened Section 29 (e) of the Animal Welfare Act.
"The second declaration is whether the act of killing the dogs in the video has violated Section 30(2)(b), (c), (d), (f), (e) and (g) of the Act.
"The last is whether the act of catching and killing dogs in the video has breached Section 9(1) and (2) of the city council's Dog Licensing Bylaw," he added.
A distressing video of workers in uniform burying several dead dogs at a pound in Lahat emerged in July.
The video has triggered grief, anger and demands for accountability from animal lovers and non-governmental organisations.
Soong said the state government and the Housing and Local Government Ministry need to provide a clear explanation on the direction, execution and transparency of recent stray animal management policies.
"We feel existing policies lack public data, humane standards and an overall strategy, which places heavy pressure on frontline volunteers and animal welfare NGOs," he said.
He also said that according to the figures released by the state government, some 6,338 stray animals have been captured between 2024 and 2025.
"Some 986 of these animals were handed over to the Veterinary Services Department for adoption or reclamation.
"What happened to the rest? Were they relocated, euthanised or processed in other ways? There is no public data available," he said.
Soong also said that the authorities have presented short, medium and long-term measures for handling stray animals, but there was no mention of microchipping, licensing or source-control mechanisms.
“Without microchips, you cannot distinguish between owned animals and abandoned ones.
"Without source control, simply catching animals will only create a vicious cycle, wasting both time and resources,” he said.
"There is currently no effective enforcement against animal abandonment, causing the problem to worsen," he added.
Soong said the ISPCA and several other NGOs are calling for more transparent and humane procedures to be implemented when handling stray animals.
"We also urge the government to reinstate 'trap, neuter, release manage' (TNRM) programmes to reduce the stray population, establish microchipping and source-management systems and to publish all data on stray animal handling and disposal activities," he said.
