Poisoning and culling of stray animals is ineffective and cruel

Culling strays is ineffective in the long run as the number of animals increase after a culling exercise because it upsets the power balance and removes the dominant animals, allowing less dominant animals to enter the area, access food and resources, and eventually reproduce. — Filepic/The Star

THE Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Selangor refers to an incident in which 20 stray dogs were found dead in Ipoh, and acknowledges the Ipoh mayor’s clarification on Feb 28 that the Ipoh City Council (MBI) workers had been present to bury the carcasses of the animals that are believed to have been poisoned by unknown individuals (“20 strays found poisoned”).

At the same time, more needs to be done to identify the culprits behind this incident and bring them to justice; to mitigate and manage human and stray animal conflicts; and humanely bring the stray animal population in Ipoh under control.