Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

farahj · Joined: 20 Oct 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Penang

Last month i saved 2 crying kittens on top of my neighbour kitchen rooftop. Since I couldn't find their mummy and could not keep them in my apartment either, I decided to sent them to an animal shelter.The kittens are about 2 1/2 weeks old.
When i reached there the officer said, they that i have to agreed and signed a handover form and they will kill the kittens if they find out the kittens have desease or anything that may effecting the rest.
I have no choice and i guess that's the right way to protect others.So i agreed. Unfortunately when the officer saw the kittens( grey local kittens)
she said they couldn't take it and if they do they will kill the kittens on the same day!!!She said the kittens to small and they are not able to take the responsible but have to kill the kittens!!!......I'm so frustrated with the officer and i took them back and help the kittens for several weeks and i let them go to be apart of stray cats!!!I feel so bad but i have no choice because i'm living in a small apartment.
I am wondering how could this organisation could suggest such solutions..I thought they suppose to prevent pets crime???

Dr Dunker · Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 466 Location: Puchong,Selangor

Dearest farahj,

One must understand that most of this shelters have their hands full, correction: very full. The word i think that should be used is 'put to sleep ...not kill...means the same thing though in the end. Puting animals to sleep is not somthing any vet wants to do. indeed it goes against our instinct and training. but those in shelters are forced to do just that for the greater good. what good is it to stuff 10 kittens in a 2 feet by three feet cage?

Purpose of Animal Shelters or SPCAs is to REHOME these animals. if these animals are not good candidates to rehome, what can they do? If the kittens are indeed so young and not vaccinated on top of that, they may catch somthing from the shelter or bring diseases into the shelter. They will take up space and attention of the workers which would be better invested in animals which can stand a chance.
Giv the shelter a break, they are tring their best and somtimes u got to be a bit cruel to be kind.

Leting the cats go and become strays wil only make the problems worst. Think of it, these kittens will be of breeding age by they time they hit 8 months. The same old problem will happen again in a cycle. this time whose fault is it?? (I am assuming the cats were not spayed or castrated when u let them go). So in the future there will be more strays that will get run over, get sick and die slow horrible death.

Would u feel better if the organisation told u that they wil take care of everyting and 'kill' the kittens when u go home?

Having said all this, pls understand that while most ppl would not even bother to do what u did, u took the effort. That is more then what i can say for most of the worlds population. We do what we can and what we think is the best course of action and leave the rest to god. No one person or even organisation can save the world. But it is heartening to know that there are others out there like u who would try.

Take care.

farahj · Joined: 20 Oct 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Penang

Dear Dr Dunker,

Thank You for the info.After read ur comments, it gave me a wider and better views of animal shelters. What I did i just trying to help those kittens without having thought of the impact.I'm not aware of pets world before so when the officer said she would 'kill' them i felt so bad to bring them to death.I think if the officer explains more and telling me to "put them to sleep" instead of "kill" would put me to second thought.

By the way , thanks again fot the info and i hope i could save more strays in a correct ways in the future.Happy festive weeks!

smeagol · Joined: 18 Oct 2006 Posts: 14

Dr Dunker was totally right.
farahj, you are not the only one who think like that..

i used to do my volunteer job in Langkawi animals shelter (Lassie) which is likely has a same function as SPCA.

almost every morning there are new kittensssss and puppiessssss in front of the office door. usually small kitten cannot be reared here...unless there are people want to adopt them.but all the volunteer here already adopt more than 20 cats already at their home.

sicks animal will be treated and castrated/spayed. then will be released to the special enclosure(a free big open space )

but what happen if the number is TOOOO MANY??
may be you can't see how many is many.
but it is...we try our best to keep them survive.

i can see a pure crystal tear drop from their eyes everytime they put the animal to sleep...
there already hundreds and probably reach thousand cats here...

that's why it is important to control stray cat population. May be you save 2 kittens...but trust me..there millions more stray kitten out there that you missed.

now im in muar. i do count myself everytime i see a cat body on the road...dead. and almost everyday i see it. why? because of being Stray.

more sadly,when i saw a cat that just being hit by car the cat shacking,shivering and bleeding waiting for death. again...this is a stray cat.

:-(

psharlene · Joined: 21 Aug 2006 Posts: 91 Location: Subang Jaya

Yes. It is sad to see so many stray cats and dogs everywhere, especially cats. One thing you can do (if you cant find a home for them) is to spay them and then only let them back onto the street. At least, you do a part in controlling the stray population.

Klinik Kembiri only charges Rm40 for castrating male cats and RM60 for spaying female cats. So it is affordable, if you want to help :D

Dr Dunker · Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 466 Location: Puchong,Selangor

Happy holidays too farahj, drive safe ya all.

Dr Nat · Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 1834 Location: Klang Valley

I'm working with the SPCA Selangor. So, let me tell you our point of view...

We recieve about 1000 pets every month. Our shelter have space for about 150 dogs and 100 cats without getting overcrowded. Each month, we manage to find GOOD homes for about 100 animals. So, what can we do with the surplus? We have NO CHOICE. Euthanasia or 'humane killing' is the only thing we can do to prevent suffering.

I know it sounds crude - how come euthanasia can prevent suffering? But think about it, if we have an extra 900 animals on our hands each month, where are we to find place for them? Put them back on the streets - and let them starve, get disease, accidents and reproduce more - is that preventing suffering? We could expand our shelter - but we'll need more cash to buy land, build the shelters, pay for our staff, spend on food and medical bills. Our monetory comes from donations alone. How many times can we really afford to expand?

The truth is.. it is hardest for the staff at SPCA or any other animal shelters to euthanise animals. It is not something people look forward to everyday. Even for the officer to reject your cat into the shelter is tough. It is difficult to convince all pet owners to be more responsible. So, in reality, animal shelters are becoming 'dumping' grounds for the unwanted, and guess who have to dispose off the 'rubbish'? It is also very difficult to reject very young animals. To keep one very young or sick animals, we're using up the resources for 2. Plus, we sometimes have to be choosy sometimes - some 'ugly' ones (pretty to us, but ugly to potential adopters) will have a very slim chance of adoption.

Now for the good news. SPCA does not only do rehoming work. In fact, many of our work are things that you don't see. We inspect cases of animal abuse, we try to increase awareness, we try to persuade local councils to have better regulations, we try to push spaying/neutering, promote responsible pet ownership, etc. For example, we have managed to set up Klinik Kembiri - to promote spaying/neutering instead of letting the pets breed and then 'throwing away' the pups/kitties.

I know its difficult for you to see a few kittens suffering like that on the streets. But if you really want to help them, you could raise them up and then find new homes for them. Just make sure you spay/neuter them first. The last thing you want is for your babies to produce more babies - and then you'll find them on the streets crying once again.

bbpie · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 49

farahj, i understand how u must have felt..d same way i felt when i brought tiny ketot to spca 3 yrs ago :)

though i do understand their reasons, it was d way they relate it to me yg buat i kecewa. practically "shooing" me out.

though dissapointed, i do try to keep an open mind. try to understand mayb they r stressed with workload n responsibilities. biasela..when u do charity work d public most of d time x appreciate ur work, n as humans mmg la..even with niat murni at times u will start to crack :)

i used to love going there when i was a child. i still remember dulu ade this one mat salleh doc..old man..very friendly, d staff dulu, mostly indians, pun very very nice, made everyone feel welcomed there. it was like a big loving family.

d last time i went there, d girl at the reception was crying her eyes out. she was having a heated argument with another lady as i walked in :roll:

Dr Nat · Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 1834 Location: Klang Valley

Sorry for your bad experience. I hope it doesn't keep you away from doing good stuff for animals.

Anyway, just want to say that a lot of people who loves animals do feel very strongly about their opinions. And when these people bring in their animals to places like SPCA, and find out that their pet is rejected by the shelter or that it would not have a happy ending, they wont be shy to speak their minds. I think that it is a misconseption that animal shelters are always the answer, that their pets will be safest there. In my opinion, animal shelters should always be the last resort.

You're right in saying that people who do charity work are not quite always appreciated. It is very frustrating to see people reacting negatively to the work that we do. But for the good results, it can be all worth it. Just hope that there is more good than the negative.