It seems getting rid of stray animals is not tackling the root of the problem — failure to collect the garbage
FINAL MOMENTS: Albrecht consoling a female dog in the compound of Miri Municipal Council. The animal was gasping for breath and convulsed in the arms of Albrecht before it drew her last breath. The animal was nursing three puppies of which one, named Lily, was adopted by a loving family.
A SEDATED dog was picked up by one hind leg like a dead chicken and flung like a lifeless carcass into the back of a covered up truck.
One after another, drugged strays were piled onto a metal tray inside the truck (with little or no ventilation) under the afternoon sun.
Many of the listless canines lay in grotesque positions … unmoving. They were not dead, only temporarily knocked out by tranquillisers — in many cases with doses larger than their bodies could handle.
Two volunteers from Piasau Animal Welfare Support (PAWS) — Louise Boucher and Heather Albrecht — said they were horrified to see animals being treated in such a cruel manner.
Pliers were used to remove the tranquilliser darts without any consideration for the animal, recalled Boucher who was appalled at Miri City Council workers’ rough handling that often opened up gaping wounds on the animals.
In an incident on Oct 1 at Taman Bayshore, an affluent residential area in Piasau, Miri, Boucher happened to notice a white truck with the Council’s logo parked nearby.
She saw two men getting off. One proceeded to run along the side of her house fence while the other appeared to pick up a dart from the ground.
Looking further down the road, she saw a small brown dog running with some difficulty. A security guard on a motorcycle was following it.
Realising the Council’s workers were catching stray dogs in the neighbourhood, she immediately called her PAWS colleagues, Alison Robson and Heather Albrecht, for help.
Boucher knew she had to do something … anything … but she and friends were totally unprepared for what was to come that would cause them much anguish.
Loading a cage into her car, she followed the truck to a nearby construction site. When the truck stopped, she got out of her own car and approached the Council’s workers and told them she wanted to keep the dog they had caught.
“But they completely ignored me — as if I wasn’t there. It was the security guard (riding the motorcycle) who finally spoke to me. He said one of the workers would call me after he returned to the office.”
Boucher was unconvinced. The man never asked for her phone number, so she took his instead from the security guard. She even called the number later to check for authenticity.
At the time, she did not know how many strays had been caught. All she knew was just one small brown dog.
When she met up with Albrecht who was apparently upset after witnessing the inhumane handling of the brown dog, they decided to act.
Boucher called the worker she met at the construction site to say she would be coming to the City Council office. He told her he would not be around but assured the dogs would be still at the back of the truck.
“I was shocked to learn he won’t be around before 2pm — and that the dogs would be still in the truck. It was 10.44am when I made the call. The dogs had been in the truck earlier than that and it looked like nothing would be done until 2pm.”
Later, Boucher and Albrecht went to the Council’s pound and to their dismay, there were no dogs to be found in the kennels there. Their fears were justified — all this while, the dogs had been kept in the truck.
According to Boucher, the worst part was that the workers at the pound were ready to leave for lunch even as the dogs were still stacked on top of one another on a metal tray in a hot stuffy truck to die a slow painful death from extreme heat and suffocation.
“The condition inside the vehicle with the windscreens wound up must have been stifling. People get arrested for such behaviour in some countries,” she said.
Three of the dogs were still breathing (barely) when Boucher and Albrecht came to their rescue. One died on the tray shortly after while a brown and white pooch was still breathing. Albrecht took it out and put it on the grass to cool off. Its body was hot to the touch.
Not part of Taman Bayshore pack, the third dog — a black mutt from Pujut area — was probably saved by its size. It was still breathing but badly traumatised.
“Its size probably saved it from an overdose of drugs. The dosage should vary according to animal size but in this case, all shots contained 3ml of solution,” Albrecht noted.
Totally disregarding the dog’s wounds, the workers tried yanking it up by the ears and one leg.
“What angered me most was the workers’ audacity to laugh at our concern for the dogs,” Boucher said.
The brown and white dog died a while later.
The black dog named Elvis was finally handed to Boucher and Albrecht after they bought a dog licence. Now, it is eating well and being treated for the wound caused by the rough removal of the tranquilliser dart.
Boucher pointed out that uncollected heaps of garbage attracted the strays to Taman Bayshore residential area. It seemed getting rid of the strays was easier than having to deal with the root of the problem — failure to collect the garbage.
Eradicating stray dogs with tranquilliser darts posed a public safety hazard, especially when it was carried out at a residential area such as Taman Bayshore because a stray dart could hit a child or anyone for that matter, she said.
“Whatever the reason, there is no need for such harshness. Cruelty to animals is totally unacceptable,” she added.