Probe of dead dogs in Penang ongoing (and reflections on poisoning)

This news report contains graphic images, so please do not click on it if you are faint-hearted: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2023/04/06/probe-on-dead-dogs-in-penang-ongoing-says-vet-dept/

(Actually, I am faint-hearted too, so I close my eyes, and quickly scroll down just to see the text.)

Some excerpts:

“Our investigation also found that many dogs were wandering around Taman Island Glades, causing some nuisance to residents. Members of the public are advised to keep their pet dogs in their homes so they don’t end up wandering outside and run the risk of being poisoned.”

Anna Chin, 67, said she first discovered four dog carcasses in the neighbourhood on March 5, before four of her own rescued dogs were found dead in a shed in her compound.

Yesterday, the city council said it had identified strategic points around the neighbourhood where CCTV cameras would be installed to detect those responsible if similar incidents were to happen in the future.

How did the alleged perpetrators poison dogs who were inside a house compound? We checked with Penang sources and we were informed that “packages” were found beside the poor deceased dogs. 

Beware of such “packages” as they can be thrown into someone’s house compound. So, the safest is to keep your pets indoors.

Now, please allow me to digress…

I remember during the time when Subang Jaya was always organising their infamous Operasi Basmi Tikus (thank goodness we don’t hear of these anymore now, under the present ADUN), I was told that rat poison is odourless and even “palatable” to entice the targeted animals to eat it.

Whoever created poisons is pretty sick in the head, right?  How sick someone must be to want to poison another living being resulting in a slow and agonising death?

And please, I am speaking from experience here. My CNRM-cat, Bosco, was poisoned. I spent four days camping with him at the vet’s desperately trying to save his life, watching all efforts go down the drain and I held him in my arms before he passed away. It was perhaps the most traumatic experience in my entire life and I have not got over it even though Bosco is no longer suffering now. But I am, whenever I recall those four traumatic days.

Sicker still, are the people in authority who order and approve the operasi to poison these poor animals. It doesn’t mean that just because you did not physically place those poisoned food you are not liable. You are worse because you ordered and approved it. When you have a choice to do better, you chose the cruelest (and easiest?) option. Those workers who placed the food were only doing their job because you ordered them to.

As I’ve written numerous times in this blog whenever Subang Jaya used to run these operasis, clean up your filthy drains and the rats will go away. I absolutely abhor bullying. I suggested imposing fines on shops that dump food wastes into your drains, but this fell on deaf ears. So the drains in Subang Jaya are still as filthy as they were 36 years ago when we moved here. Some have a permanent stench because they were probably never cleaned.

You were also not only poisoning rats, you were also poisoning cats and dogs and other innocent animals that might have been attracted to the food laced with poison and eaten it.

That’s on you. Karma is a boomerang.

And remember this: Poison Nature and it will come back and bite you. Just wait.

We have published this a few times before, it doesn’t hurt to read it again and reflect upon it: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/rat-poison-12-12-2018.php?fbclid=IwAR2ECycWOWiezAe4KVF8_dGCI8IzPp8eXzlez1DPolwUSFXPN3EuE3mhKdA

The harm caused by the super-toxic second generation anticoagulant rodenticides in California is well documented. More than 70 percent of wildlife tested in California in recent years has been exposed to dangerous rodenticides. Officials have found poisonings in more than 25 different species of animals, including endangered wildlife such as the San Joaquin kit fox and Pacific fisher.

More than 4,400 children under age 6 were poisoned with the long-acting anticoagulant rodenticides in the United States in 2016, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. The Environmental Protection Agency has found that children in low-income families are disproportionately exposed to the poisons. Thousands of incidents of pets being poisoned by rodenticides have also been reported, many resulting in serious injury or death.

Effective affordable, alternatives to rat poison include rodent-proofing of homes and farms by sealing cracks and crevices and eliminating food sources; providing owl boxes in rural areas to encourage natural predation; and using traps that don’t involve these highly toxic chemicals.