PETALING JAYA: Seremban City Council (MBS) mayor Masri Baharuddin has urged critics of the city council’s voluntary stray dog handover scheme to propose viable alternatives.
He said while he was open to all views in finding the best solution to the city’s problem with stray dogs, critics should not resort to just criticising the council’s plans, Sinar Harian reported.
“Don’t just criticise us like ‘anjing menyalak bukit’ (dogs barking at hills),” he was quoted as saying in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan today, using the Malay idiom to describe a futile or pointless effort.
“It is easy to question our scheme, but resolving the stray dog problem isn’t easy. My ultimate goal is to ensure the areas under the council’s jurisdiction are free of stray dogs,” he said.
Yesterday, an animal rights group urged MBS to immediately withdraw the scheme under which the council would pay members of the public RM50 for every adult dog and RM25 for every puppy that was brought in.
Rajesh Nagarajan and Sachpreetraj Singh of Lawyers for Animal Rights said the cash-for-capture scheme could incentivise the kidnapping or seizure of pet dogs on the pretext of catching strays for cash.
They said MBS should disclose its legal authority, budgetary approval, standard operating procedures for capture, and arrangements for the subsequent treatment and disposal of the dogs that had been surrendered.
Masri lamented that MBS usually took the blame for attacks or other incidents involving stray dogs, and hoped the public would view the city council’s efforts in solving the stray dogs problem positively.
He said MBS had appointed a contractor to carry out operations to catch stray dogs and also allocated funds to neuter the animals.
“It is not cheap to manage these stray dogs. However, I would like to emphasise that we welcome anyone who is willing to take in these dogs.
“The only thing is that we will charge these people for the costs incurred by MBS while caring for these animals,” he added.
