Animal shelters are important as they provide a safe space for stray animals and abandoned pets.
Unfortunately, the Malaysia Animal Association took to their Facebook page to call out a Perak cat shelter owner who is allegedly taking donations from the public but ordering its staff to dump the cats that are under their care. In their post, they even included an apparent screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation where the shelter owner ordered its staff to dump the cats.
Malaysia Animal Association wrote, “This is a screenshot of the conversation of an owner of a private cat shelter that is not registered and not licensed under the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS), who is found to be actively collecting private donations and receiving many surrendered cats on the shelter’s page with one of their employees.”
“In the conversation between the owner of the shelter and their employee, they clearly ordered the employee to collect 20 thin and sick cats to be thrown away at a far end of a village in a palm oil plantation at midnight.”
The WhatsApp message read, “Tonight, about 20 skinny and sick cats, put them in a carrier. Send them to the very far end of the village at midnight, in any palm oil plantation. Let them go.”
The alleged owner also mentions that 20 other cats should be sent to an island near the shelter.
Malaysia Animal Association alleges that there is further evidence of the shelter’s wrongdoings.
“Much more physical evidence, witness statements and written statements, as well as conversations in voice notes of animal law violations committed by the owner of this illegal shelter, is in the hands of the Malaysian Animal Law Enforcement and Investigation officers,”
“Stay tuned (to see) if the owner of this illegal shelter challenges the law,” they added.
The shelter responds!
In a statement shared on their Facebook page, the shelter owner admitted to ordering the release of the cats for them to live a free life, as a staff member can no longer watch sick cats die.
“Through a phone call, (the staff member) pressured me that they can no longer handle cats that are sick and eventually die, that they can no longer bury groups of dead cats. And they pressured me to release the cats immediately,”
“I made a drastic decision. On August 23, 2024, I instructed (the staff member) to collect the sick and emaciated cats to be sent to a palm oil plantation and left with food. I spoke on the phone with (the staff member) and told them that if they can’t handle taking care of sick cats anymore, let’s release them because they have the right to live freely and the outdoors is their habitat,” the owner wrote.
The shelter owner also told the staff member to keep things between the both of them as if the public saw the staff dumping the cats, the staff member would get in trouble.
However, the staff member allegedly released the cats at Pasar Langkap in Perak, instead of a palm oil plantation.
The shelter owner then explained that the staff member who released the cats is the one currently spreading this information online, and that the staff member is spreading misinformation about donations through images taken from Google.
“Here I would like to emphasise, that I was reluctant to release the 20 cats, but (the staff member) pressured me to release them,” they added.
What do you think about this? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
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