Respect a
ll lifeGroup draws attention to the rights and welfare of animals under our care.
LAST week, a group of disabled folks from Selangor took a bold step to do something that had never been done before. They drew public attention to an important issue –the need for all Malaysians to respect and protect the rights and welfare of animals.
The issue arose after nine pedigree canines were put to sleep by the Kuala Langat District Council (MDKL) on Sept 19.
Fed up with the lackadaisical attitude towards the welfare of animals, the handicapped decided to do something about it.
They wanted to meet with the MDKL president personally to impress upon him why dogs are Man’s best friends.
They also wanted to stress that the MDKL should have made every effort to save and retrain the animals instead of putting them down.
A dozen people with varying types of disabilities packed themselves and their foldable wheelchairs into two special vans last Friday.
They started off from Rawang and took nearly two hours to reach MDKL’s headquarters.
It was one challenge after another for the team from the word “Go!”
The first obstacle was to get everyone to meet at one venue early in the morning.
A few of them had cars and motorcycles, and managed without too much difficulty. The rest had to hire taxis. Some of the taxi drivers made a fuss about having to put the foldable wheelchairs into the boot of their car.
Many had to wake up an hour or two earlier so they could be at the pick-up point on time. They had to feed their companion pets first before leaving.
Several of the parking lots reserved for the disabled at public restrooms along the way to MDKL were taken up by able-bodied drivers even though there were wheelchair signs at these parking space. As a result, they had to use parking lots meant for the able-bodied.
The situation was no better when they arrived at the MDKL. The only two car parks for the disabled were occupied by the council’s staff. The group had to wait until the staff moved their cars.
Inside the building, there were no disabled-friendly toilets. The visitors prayed that they would be able to sit through the event without having to use the toilet.
However, the group were pleased that they were able to meet the president.
They wasted no time in expressing their disappointment that authorities such as the Department of Veterinary Services was not involved in the removal of the dogs from an abandoned farm.
The veterinarians would have been in the best position to assess each animal and its behaviour.
Even if one or two were found to be aggressive, the DVS would have known how to sedate, remove and rehabilitate them later, before giving up all hope.
The group went to great lengths to explain to the council how each of the dead dogs, which included Rottweilers, Dalmatians and a boxer, could have easily found loving homes because they were pedigrees.
Former councillor for the Selayang municipality, Gurdip Kaur, a wheelchair user who has a pedigree service dog of her own, pointed out that with proper training, any one of the canines could have been successfully paired off with an elderly or handicapped person.
Francis Siva, who is paralysed from the neck down, said that Rottweilers were not “dangerous dogs” as mistakenly assumed by some people.
Serving as adviser to Petpositive, an animal-assisted therapy organisation for the disabled and the elderly, Francis said the breed was being used by several members of the society as therapy canines to help improve their quality of life.
“When dogs attack, it is almost always the owners who are to be blamed,” said Francis, who is also president of the Independent Living and Training Centre (ILTC) in Rawang.
ILTC committee member Hajjah Khairozy, who has a walking difficulty, related an amazing experience she had three years ago with a stray dog that saved her life.
The dog which was in front of her house started barking non-stop when her home suddenly caught fire. Even her neighbours had no idea what was going on until they were alerted by the canine’s barks.
After hearing all that they had to say, Francis said the council president conceded that they could have handled the situation better rather than culling the canines.
“He even promised us that there would not be a repeat of the incident,” he added.
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