Letter: Councils need to address animal welfare holistically

I refer to Leven Woon’s report , ” Suspect in cat torture video to reveal self on Sunday”.

http://komunitikini.com/kl-selangor/serdang/p24682
I would like to suggest that groups like Pet-Positive and the SPCA be consulted to advise MBPJ and other departments draw up a plan to ensure that action be taken in these incidents.

I had an occasion to lodge a police report and then a report to MBPJ on an incident involving two unleashed frisky dogs belonging to a neighbour several doors away.

MPPJ came back months after the incident saying that there is only one dog. That was all they did.

The dogs remain unleashed.

All other dogs seem to be on leashes, including my immediate neighbour’s, a rather old and rotund dachshund that seems incapable of running after anything. My criminal lawyer friends propose using a section in the Criminal Procedure Code which empowers the magistrate to take cognisance of a criminal act. This will bypass MPBJ’s inaction on the matter. But I wish for a more amicable settlement of the case which MPBJ staff or its processes are not quite capable of addressing.

As with animal cruelty in the komunitikini report, MPBJ needs to have a protocol that will call for several measures, including taking action under some regulations pertaining to nuisance. Pet Positive for example would be able to assist in community mediation (dog attacks, etc). Owners of unruly animals, for example, can be mandated to get their dogs trained or be fined for not putting dogs on a leash. Other groups should be able to help MPBJ devise a protocol on criminal matters.

This would mean that MPBJ and similar municipal bodies should have the budget to develop programmes with NGOs and communities including, citizen journalists.

“Jannah Abdul Karim”