A female dog that has just given birth was sitting in front of her owner’s house when she was shot to death by the local authorities. This incident took place in Sitiawan, Perak on 15 December 2018.
According to Sinchew, the dog owner’s daughter was sleeping in the house at 9am on Saturday when she was startled by the sound of a gun that went off. The next thing she knew, the dog had died right in front of their house.
The house owner revealed that the dog had just given birth to a few puppies recently and now that she has been shot, the puppies will become orphans. He also questioned the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) practised by the personnel as no one in the house was informed prior to the shooting.
“How can the personnel pull the trigger without first notifying the dog owner or house owner? What if someone coincidentally walked out of the house when the gun went off?” he said.
He added that all this while, the dog was kept within the house compound and it slipped out the night before when his daughter opened the gate. Admittedly, the dog wasn’t wearing any tag but it has never bitten anyone nor has it had any rabies, according to the owner.
This matter has since been escalated to Astaka assemblyman, Teoh Yee Chern who’s also a legal practitioner. From the standpoint of law, the personnel does have the authority to kill stray dogs but it has to be done according to their SOP. To his knowledge, there is only one staff in Manjung Municipal Council who’s trained to shoot strays and he would check with the council to see if the shooting was carried out in line with the SOP.
This is the reason why pet owners are advised to put collars on their pets. Hopefully, local councils can opt to neuter the strays instead of shooting them as it is more humane and effective. RIP doggo. 🙁
Also read: Viral Photos of Stray Dogs Being Euthanised Publicly in Seremban Send M’sians into Outrage