Pulau Ketam Doggies Problem

Photo by Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better

I have not been blogging for a week because I had been extremely busy with work.


Pulau Ketam is now not famous for their seafood but is famous for all the wrong reasons!


Fortunately I never stuck my head in the ground like a big fat ostrich during my business trip and I read a flurry of news in The Star highlighting Pulau Ketam folks abandoning about 400 stray dogs on an inhabited island without food and water.


I am deeply saddened by this issue and I believe dogs have equal rights to live just like us. However, I do not feel blaming the Pulau Ketam villagers is entirely justified. All the news regarding this dog problem usually focus on the feedback by animal rights groups without really hearing out the local villagers, except for the village headman.


I have a friend living in Pulau Ketam and according to him, they had to contend with living with stray dogs for a number of years. Perhaps to be fair, we should hear his side of the story too. As reported in the news, 10 years ago the local villagers witnessed the cruel slaying of stray dogs by local authorities. The villagers especially children were horrified and traumatised by this incidents. Recently, when the stray dogs population reached an alarming number, they figured that transferring these dogs to another island was a better solution than allowing these doggies to be hunted down by bounty hunters.


Of course animal rights groups slammed the village folks for they should know by common sense that dumping these strays on an island without food and water, they are causing these dogs a slow death by starvation which is as cruel as exterminating them if not more. And more precisely, the villagers are to be blamed for the increase in the population of stray dogs. The number of strays would have been brought under control if they had brought the dogs (whether strays or owned) to the vet to be neutered or spayed.


If you have ever visited Pulau Ketam, it is only accesible by a 35 to 45 minute boat or ferry ride from Port Klang jetty. Most of the local folks are fishermen or traders and predominantly Chinese. With all due respect and no offence, most of these villagers are not highly educated. Expecting them to have a high awareness of animal welfare or pet care is like expecting a jungle tribe in remote Amazon to "google" for social etiquette. Call them ignorant or any other name, they were indeed simply naive to think that the dogs can survive on their own. But they truly believe the dogs deserve to live, at least a chance to survive than being put to death mercilessly by bounty hunters.


Most of these villagers are also of the lower income bracket and they just could not afford to send these dogs to the vet to be neutered. Some of them are not willing to do it for religious reasons. There is not a single veterinary clinic on the island, which means they have take the dog by boat and then land transport to a nearest vet clinic in Klang. By all means, they are just simple fishermen without the luxury of time and money.


I believe they are not cruel folks, just not sufficiently educated on the animal welfare. Their intention was good but the method is obviously wrong. Think of this, to transfer 400 dogs to an island is not a cheap and very time consuming. I am not saying what they have done is right but they had thought it was a humane way of treating animals.


Animal rights groups can learn form this episode and offer to educate these village folks about animal rights to prevent similar disasters. Perhaps, kind vets can volunteer to neuter stray dogs on the island and work out on a shared expenses basis. Castigating the villagers serve no solution and would only drive them further away from championing animal rights. Except for SPCA, Friends Furry Farm, Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better and other genuine groups, I feel there are so many other animal rights groups jumping on the bandwagon accusing Pulau Ketam folks of cruelty just to gain some cheap publicity. You have never set foot on Pulau Ketam. Don't live on the sympathy of the poor dogs.


This is the time we join hands to help the poor dogs in distress and seek a long term solution. I understand how frustrating it is to press this issue to local authorities and I salute those who had tried to rescue this furry friends. But STOP putting the blame entirely on Pulau Ketam ordinary village folks. We are not exactly fault-free either.

Save the doggies first.