Address growing number of strays

EVERY now and then, we will come across incidents related to stray animals in Malaysia, especially stray dogs, which often spark outcry among the public when local enforcement officers do not obey/follow the standard operating procedure to humanely euthanise them. It is ethically wrong to kill dogs in such an inhumane way where dogs are subjected to an agonising and slow death.

These incidents allegedly committed by the local enforcement officers may potentially violate the Animal Act 1953 (revised 2006) for animal abuse. The stray animals are ever-proliferating if there is no action taken to curb it. A simple stray cat is capable of producing up to two litters of kittens per year, up to six kittens each time. Without an appropriate way to control such scenarios, the number would only increase gradually up to a point where there aren’t many options left to address the issue except the dreaded way – euthanasia, where it proves to be the final yet desperate attempt to control the growing number of strays’ population.