CJMY Exclusive: Animal angel Dr Chan Kah Yein

Citizen Journalists Malaysia (CJMY) recently had an interview with Dr Chan Kah Yein founder of AnimalCare, a charity organisation which promotes care giving to stray animals and helps in their spay-neuter and medical needs.

She shares with us what prompted  her to start AnimalCare and her great concerns in the plight of stray animals due to uncontrolled breeding.

Their  Mission:

1.To promote care giving to street animals.

2.  To help in the neutering and medical needs of street animals.

3.  To cultivate compassion to animals through education.

AnimalCare has also the following funds:

1. Medical Fund – to subsidise the neutering and medical treatment of street animals.

2. Food Fund – to help needy caregivers in feeding their animals.

3. Education Fund – to provide free educational materials to the public.

4. Disaster Fund – to help animals caught in natural calamities.

She stressed that the current method of management of stray animals in Malaysia is to capture and kill and believe that a long term solution is via CNRM.

C = Care
N = Neuter
R = Rehome or Return to colony
M = Manage

• Care – Start by caring for the street animals, ie. taking an interest in their well-being and feeding them.
• Neuter – Bring the animals to a vet of your choice vets for neutering (if you need a subsidy, AnimalCare will provide).
• Rehome – Will publicise on their blog myanimalcare.org for re-homing.
• Return to colony – Failing to rehome, the next best option is to return the neutered animals to the colony.  Returning them to the same colony helps preserve the eco-system and due to the natural territorial behaviour of animals, the neutered animals may prevent the entry of other un-neutered strays from outside.
• Manage – Continue to look after the animals in the colony.  Bring them to our vets when they are sick (AnimalCare will subsidise the medical bill).  If an animal passes away and a new animal enters the colony, repeat the CNRM process.

“You can be one person, one person with a dream, one person with a hope and we can do a lot. You can start something when you have a passion .” said Chan when she started AnimalCare.