It was back in April when I came upon this event, "Charity Run" organized by SPCA Penang to raise fund for spaying and neutering in George Town, Penang's Facebook Page. You may view the link here.
I remember back then when I first saw the ad, I was feeling skeptical. Note that the objectives stated in the posting was:-
a. To raise money for the SPCA in particular to spay and neuter strays to reduce the population
of unwanted / stray animals.
b. To create awareness of "Animal Day" with the aim of getting the programme endorsed as anannual state project.
c. To reduce the number of stray dogs that will benefit tourism and public safety
Feeling doubtful myself, I have posted a comment on the posting stating:-
I hope SPCA Penang will utilize the funds to spay strays on the streets instead of purely spaying those dogs in the shelter. If the shelter could not accomodate that many dogs, as they always state, spay those on the streets and it will help control the population of strays. Rescuers are struggling here to fork out money to pay for the spaying of dogs on the streets and later on to be shot down by the council. And what's the point of spaying those in the shelter and later on euthanizing them.
As seen from the posting, someone by the name of Yvonne Russell has responded to my comment positively, assuring me that the funds collected will be utilized to help the strays:-
Yvonne Russell @ellen the main aim of this run is to generate funds to spay/neuter strays. our shelter is always full. this project will help to reduce the population of strays
From her reply, referring SPCA Penang as "our shelter", I would assumed that she is a volunteer or even a committee member of the organization? And so, I decided to keep an open mind and look forward to how SPCA Penang is going to implement the upcoming Spay & Neuter Project.
Anyway, 2 months down the road, we are slapped with the news, "Spaying vouchers for pets". Since when a good cause for the strays become the benefits for home pets? I, personally have nothing against good benefits given to pet owners but priority SHOULD be given to street animals IF as what they claimed, the main purpose IS to control the over population of strays and create a stray free Penang.
I, as the citizen of Penang felt deeply betrayed and cheated. With such a huge sum collected (RM70,000), it can be used to help a large amount of strays. Instead of making a move to sterilize strays on the streets, these people decided to lay back and wait for people to walk in with all kinds of documents to apply for one single sterilization voucher. And by end of the day, it is to spay a home pet while the number of strays continue to multiply on the streets at every minute. This is totally ABSURB! DO NOT waste the public's fund by just sponsoring sterilization fund for home pets. This is not fair and will not help in reducing the population of strays. Think again, it is those strays outside on the streets that need spaying the most.
Last but not least, I wish to call for all people to boycott Gills Vet. It is totally irresposible of Dr. Gurdev to stop people from feeding the strays, quoting that “This will reduce the chances of strays mating”. So, has the initial plan to sterilize strays been changed to starving the strays to death in attempt to reduce the over population of strays? If this is what he meant, he is not even fit to be a vet!
People, if you are like me, having the thought that what SPCA Penang doing is not right, write to them stating your thoughts and opinions. Tell them what you think of their actions. Make your voice heard. These people have proven that they are not capable of caring for the animals.
Email can be sent to:-
spca4060@streamyx.com
Gillsvet@gmail.com
cc: layeanatkinson@hotmail.com
Last but not least, I wish to call for all people to boycott Gills Vet. It is totally irresposible of Dr. Gurdev to stop people from feeding the strays, quoting that “This will reduce the chances of strays mating”. So, has the initial plan to sterilize strays been changed to starving the strays to death in attempt to reduce the over population of strays? If this is what he meant, he is not even fit to be a vet!
People, if you are like me, having the thought that what SPCA Penang doing is not right, write to them stating your thoughts and opinions. Tell them what you think of their actions. Make your voice heard. These people have proven that they are not capable of caring for the animals.
Email can be sent to:-
spca4060@streamyx.com
Gillsvet@gmail.com
cc: layeanatkinson@hotmail.com
Alternatively, you may visit SPCA Penang's Facebook Page here and comment on their page what you think about the article, Spaying vouchers for pets!
Let us speak up for the voiceless!
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7 comments:
I think many irresponsible pet owners do not want to neuter their pets due to a number of reasons, i spoke to many people who wanted to adopt cats that I rescued and tried to rehome, they said, one of the factor is the cost, secondly is the inconveniece and third factor cited, is "we don't want to play god". So, I think (i am not an SPCA member/volunteer, just a cat lover) SPCA intention was to encourage this people to neuter their pets..hoping with this "Voucher",people will "take advantage of it", to neuter their pets...it is a fact that many people don't want to neuter and let their pets breed and dump them,thus they end up become strays.. and some Penangites mentality is, since got voucher, "worth it",don't "phak s'ng", this voucher may then encourage them to neuter the pet..so i think SPCA is thinking from this aspect, thus it's trying to encourage these irresponsible pet owners to take action...that's how i interpret this issue of voucher...it does help in reducing "future" strays.. unspayed pets breeds, results to strays..
I know about cats dumping because i rescue,neuter, release/rehome them.. many of them...21 cats in total i have as of last month..are under my care.. As people know i am doing that around my area, very frequently kittens are dumped at my house..last year, one kitten was tied up in a plastic bag, thrown into my car garage.. beginning of this year, 4 kittens were thrown at my house, and just recently, on 20th May, I have 5kittens dumped right behind my back door! Where do all these kittens come from? There is a possibility of they were thrown away by irresponsible cat owners...who don't want to neuter their pet... Education of the public to create awareness is one thing..got awareness, no action, is useless.. not everyone will neuter them...some people ask for the kittens i take care of, to keep in their shops to keep the rats away, they are not true cat lovers and i told them to neuter the cats, but they gave me all sorts of excuse, said, they will lock up the cats, or their areas, no male cats, so no need to neuter them. So, end up, i refuse to give these irresponsbile people the cats...and i think SPCA is targeting such people...who won't neuter their pet unless....there is some incentive...such people do exist, many of them...from my interaction wtih them...
Well, i don't agree with the statement by Dr Gurdev not to feed the strays...i support feeding them and at the same time, neutering them... There are a few drs in Gill Vet clinic and i don't think all of them are that opinion as mention in above article.i have dealt with two drs, Dr Gurdev's sons, if i am not wrong(i don't really know them)...one of them, is very supportive of trap, neuter and release the cats program under SPCA, and I have done many neutering of the stray cats under them (10 cats soon) I am quite impress with their professionalims in treating the strays just like the way they treat my own pet cats.. In case readers are wondering, I am just speaking of my experience, Gills Vet nor SPCA don't ask me to write all these..i have nothing to gain from writing this, but I just believe that it's fair that i share my side of stories with readers, as i have seen how the strays at my area benefited from the SPCA and Gills Vet partnership..so, it won't be honourable of me to keep my experience to myself after reading the above.. I was encouraged by SPCA to embark in the TNR program..previously many cats,especially the mother cats were very skinny and whatever food they managed to fight for, they will rush to feed their kittens..after 2months, they get pregant and give birth, the cyle continues...but now, after i have neutered so many cats in the past 2 years, I can see the positive effects,the cats are all contented and very much healthier and looking good... and the population of cats in my cats colony is under control...new cats appeared are all due to dumping...possibly by irresponsible cat onwers...
Wow, Im impressed with the Anonymous comment.
It is owners responsible to spay their pets n since when SPCA is so free to 'Jaga tepi kain org'? If you sponsor home pets for spaying now, do u seriously think Penangites would, in future spay their pets without hoping for more vouchers? Home pets can be spayed at owners cost depending on how soon they can be educated on the importance of spaying, when strays cannot walk into a vet to spay themselves.
Also, urging public to starve strays to death is obviously wrong. I cannot see (whatever) reason behind such advice.
SHAME ON THE SPCA!
I really want to know how long is a stray dogs or a stray cats that had been taken in by SPCA Penang can live before they are kill?Like how long will they accommodate the strays before they are being kill if no one adopt them.This really breaks my heart.
And did SPCA Seberang Perai did the samne too?From SPCA SP blog they mentions that they are no-killing organization.It is true?
from my experience and told the same by a few friends, spca penang stops people from bringing in any strays practically from the get-go ie on the phone. "if u bring him/her in we'll put it down" all said TOO OFTEN. once my friend saw a very badly injured dog nearby her apartment. she called spca and got an earful. "y are u calling us so late?! call us in the morning!" etc etc "if u want us to come over, u'd have to pay us rm300 (or so) as transport & effort charges. we'll take a look at the dog & c what we can do. but apa2 pun we will be due rm300." my God. d poor dog was gone the next morning, hopefully to doggy heaven. true story. i found an abandoned kitten once (before the earlier incident), called up, and told he'd be put down if i brought him in. i ended up taking him in.
well.. I think SPCA gave the people sterilization voucher because the house pets's offsprings are also one of the cause of the rise of strays. They are trying to. No one can satisfy everyone if you understand what I'm saying. They are just doing what they think that could reduce the numbers of stray. Cheer up! =) I do agree on what you're saying too thou!
Sometimes, the SPCA have no choice but too put those animals in sleep because there are just too many strays =) so we public should not only depend on SPCA to help those animals. If we're not satisfy then we should help the animals ourselves and not how the SPCA can help those strays.
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