I
Ieyasu Tokugawa
Guest
Wednesday November 10, 2010
Use darts to put down strays, council urged
IPOH: The Ipoh City Council (DBI) should use tranquilliser darts instead of bullets when putting down strays, the Ipoh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) said. Its adviser Dr Goh Hue Lang said there was always a danger that a bullet might accidentally hit a passerby.
Condemning the fatal shooting of a licensed therapy dog at Taman Merdeka here recently, Dr Goh said it was unfortunate that the council decided to gun it down. “Tranquilliser darts should be used to sedate a dog if its owner cannot be immediately found,” she said yesterday. “Only after all efforts to contact the owner fail can the council put it down humanely.”
Dr Goh noted that the ISPCA had been advocating the use of tranquilliser darts for more than 20 years but nothing positive had come out of it. On Oct 29, a dog named Spunk belonging to a 75-year-old woman, was killed by council dog shooters.
“I hope they learnt a lesson from the public uproar over the incident,” she said, adding that a dog too had a right to live. The council in a statement here yesterday defended its action in putting down the dog. It claimed that all five dogs that were killed that day were not licensed.
