Give a little bit ...

I think the world needs a little more ACTIVE compassion.

Oh, everyone is a kind person, a compassionate person. Everyone feels bad about the rampant suffering in the world today. Everyone thinks that suffering should be eased, that these people or animals don't deserve their bad fortune, deserve to be helped, we feel sad, and maybe we say a prayer for all the poor animals and people in the world.

Yet how many of us really ACT upon our kind feelings?

Feeling kind and sorrowful is not enough. Prayers alone are not enough. Words alone are not enough. We need more people who are willing to give a little bit of time, of money, of energy to help reduce the misery in the world. Be it of animals, or homeless people, the poor, the sick, the dying. If we feel bad, DO something about it. Give a dollar, give 5, give some time, volunteer in a soup kitchen, a shelter, a home.

When we were children, in our Moral classes, we read stories about Anand, or Ah Chong, or Ali who find a stray cat or dog stuck in a drain, will stop and take the time and effort to rescue it. Regardless if they were going to a ballgame, or going home after a long day, our generically named hero would help a creature in need.
Yet how many of us would do the same? We think we will, but do we? Are we waiting for that perfect opportunity, with a nice clean drain, a lot of time on our hands, a sweet, cute and friendly little cat, not injured, not dirty, not frightened before we actually ACT?

A common enough example for people who drive: How many of us have been driving along and seen a tortoise cross the road? How many of us actually stop and move the tortoise of out harms way? I saw a guy on a motorcycle do it once. I bless him for his compassion.

All religions tell us to be kind, to be loving, to help those in need. Yet so many pious people who go daily to their mosques and temples and churches do no more than pray for the world to be a better place. For the homeless to be fed, for the animals to be saved. They gain their merits in places of worship, and walk with their eyes on the heavens, blind to their brothers and sisters need on earth.

I'm Buddhist, so this is a rant against how some people view 'karma'. Just because Karma exists doesn't make it right to ignore an animal in need. The dog or cat doesn't suffer because it is its karma to suffer. They suffer because their karma put them in an animal form, and WE don't do anything to help them.

A poor dog is lost and hungry in the streets. Is it karma? Should we just walk by believing in divine justice, or can we take a little time to give it some food and comfort, to take it in and hope his owner comes looking for him, or to put him for adoption? I believe Karma MAY create a situation, but OUR FREE WILL gives us the choices of how we want to act.
Why do people believe I should go for meditation and chanting and prayers daily? Do I gain less merits by helping animals? Do their prayers gain more? To be honest, so what? The world is a better place when we try to help each other. Thats why I like Tzu Chi. They pray and help all in the same breath.

We are ordinary people, we aren't superstars to make headlines, we aren't politicians who make rulings. We arent rich to give newspaper worthy donations, and we aren't saints to spend our lives helping the poor. But we can make small changes, small good things in the world, so lets do that. Lets start making changes by starting, to quote the late Michael Jackson, with the Man in the Mirror. Lets start by changing ourselves, and our little piece of the world. If enough of us do that, maybe we won't have to walk by something and think 'poor thing, someone should help him' because we will.

Horrendous!

While I was in SPCA last week, I saw a tiny Shih Tzu puppy .. with literally ONE eye. According to the Uncle, the owners abandoned it at SPCA after the vet had to remove one of it's eyes, most likely due to severe infection/blindness. After calculating from its first vaccination, I realized the puppy was only 4.5 months old!!! What kind of people are these? They had the pup for 2 months, got it blind, then threw it away like trash. Didn't they feel any remorse or responsibility for what had happened to it? It was their fault for not taking care of the puppy properly, it was so thin, with fungal infection of the skin too.

How terrible people are. They don't seem to realize the cutesy puppy in the pet shop is a live baby dog and needs care and attention. After neglecting it like that, they just toss it out with no second thought.
Horrible people! Add them to the list of people to burn in hell.

As for the pup, when I brought him home, he was so friendly and playful. Such a good natured and brave little dog. Hopefully he will find a permanent home with a friend of mine, and have a better life beyond his lousy start.

Equal rights in Malaysia! Even morons can become a deputy director general

WHY NOT EAT DOGS?

So the Deputy Director General of the Veterinary Department, Ahmad Suhaimi Omar, suggests eating strays as a way to control their population.

Tepuk Dahi.

I mean seriously? The first thought that comes to mind, is... WHAT AN UNHYGIENIC SUGGESTION!!! Yucky yuck yuck.

Strays on the street are generally unhealthy and have disease (skin the most obvious) and other internal parasites (worms and stuff) and the Deputy DirectorGeneral of the Veterinary Department suggests eating them?! Like, worms and disease and blood parasites and all that crap? Urgh

Oh my god, what are the state of chicken and cow and pork farms in Malaysia like if thats his idea of hygiene?! I think I better go vegetarian. Hopefully the Farming Department isnt as retarded.

This kind of suggestion is just going to encourage councils like the Selayang Municipal Council to continue their ridiculous and extremely callous and inhumane actions of going into peoples houses to take an unlicensed animal without issuing any summons or warning letters. After all, a nice, clean, healthy and worm free pet would be MUCH more saleable than a mangy stray.

Also, I thought the government policy was to issue warning letters before taking legal action. Even if we default on our house or car loan, there are warning letters being issued before the item is defaulted and repossessed. And those are way more valuable. Is DVS not part of our government? Or you know, cuz its an ANIMAL, who gives a crap? Backwards Malaysia, backwards!

I wonder if the Deputy idiot realizes the implication of his statements? Hmm. Probably not. Or maybe hes trying defray costs of maintaining stray population by any means possible, regardless of the consequence of his actions.

Oh, I also loves this little statement of his "Let this be a lesson to pet owners to not let their dogs stray. It is a matter of responsible pet ownership. We have to educate pet owners, but this will take a long time."
So... lets not educate! Lets eat any dog unlucky enough to run out of the house? Wow, bugger. Whens this gonna extend to kids? Are we gonna charge parents whose kids run out and get drowned/murdered/raped/lost as well? I mean, criminal neglect oi?

I guess cat owners are next. Man you guys are screwed. Unless you keep your cat in a cage .. theres no way to keep a cat in a compound. So if your cat decides to go take a stroll in the street, its soon fair game for any Municipal Council to catch it and fry it. Yea. .. better be careful.

God, what a stupid suggestion. This is really our DVS? Malaysia Boleh! Equal Rights!
Now anyone can climb the career ladder, regardless of ability or intelligence! Its like a random lottery. Where should I submit my name to be a Director of some random department?

Good job Malaysia.

Trying to do the right thing is an uphill battle at times. I rehomed 2 dogs this week, but if you look at the what goes on in a GOVERNMENT FACILITY (Mayhem in Selayang) you don't wonder why rescue work seems never ending. 2 lives saved, how many more destroyed? Seems the only people who really care and try are grassroots NGO's. I really wish SPCA Selangor could step in. They have more political clout I believe, being an established Animal Welfare group, but so far, silence.

Really, great job Malaysia. Makes me really proud looking at pictures of starved animals because someone decided the streets were too cluttered and decided to pay dogcatchers money to bring in these pitiful animals to our government hell-hole.

Auschwitz anyone?

Should've, would've, could've...: The story of Whitey-white-white

A little experience on euthanasia. Sometimes we need to look at both sides of the coin before we call heads or tails.

A few friends of mine do some rescue work. One of them, call her Ms C, is a very kind, hardworking lady. When I say hardworking I mean for the animals. She does not stint one bit on care and expenses for the animals in her charge.
A few months back, a bus driver brought a small dog to Ms C that he picked up from the street. This dog had been abandoned, with a TERRIBLE eye infection. I wish I had taken pictures but by the time I saw the dog, words can barely describe her condition.

The infection and maggots had eaten away this little terriers eye. When she was brought in, the wound and eye sockets were full of maggots, eaten up, and half the head skin was gone as well. The eyeball itself was long gone. Ms C was horrified by the condition of the poor dog, and brought her to the vet to be euthanized. Instead of doing so, the vet said that since she is eating, she deserves a chance at life, and she wouldnt put it to sleep. RM200++ later (Half price) the dog had been cleaned up, the skin flaps of the scalp sewn together, but nothing could be done for the gaping, raw socket. Ms C brought her back home to the shelter, where I saw her 2 days later on the weekend.
Another vet (who also runs a shelter) argued that the dog should have been put to sleep. Her condition was bad, she was in a lot of pain, and the cost spent on her and could have gone far in maintaining our shelter as we run it privately, generally without donations from the public. But done is done, and after all that, that doggie was not gonna be put to sleep.

For 2 weeks, twice a day we had to use a light iodine solution to wipe and clean the eye socket and wounds. The socket was very deep, and the area under the socket was already hollow due to maggots, so the pus had to be squeezed out before rinsing it with iodine, then smearing with Socresyl (sp?) Jelly meant for burns. We needed raw flesh to heal over. Pus was also in the wound above the eye socket, but the skin flaps healed pretty alright after a week. Whitety-white-white as I called her was such a good dog, even though the treatments must have hurt A LOT, at most during a particular hard squeeze she would just flinch. She ate like a horse too, and her belly was so distended I think she was pregnant in the bargain (We couldn't do much about that due to her health and also late condition, the main thing was to heal her, then rehome the pups if they came). For all the pain we caused her during the cleaning (and it must have hurt a lot!), Whitety-white-white never bit, or growled at me, and kept on eating. This was done TWICE a day by me and Ms C...

Unfortunately, 2 weeks after all that intensive care, just when her scalp wound had scabbed over and fallen off, and the hole under the eye socket clean of pus, on Saturday, Whitey-white began to have fits. Maybe we missed some infection and it got into her brain, her eye socket wounds were very deep. I did not go to the shelter during that week, but her fits grew a lot worse and finally on Tuesday, Ms C had no choice but to bring her to the vet and put her to sleep. Frankly, if Ms C had made that decision, that dog must have been suffering like hell. Ms C tries her very best and often succeeds in healing her dogs. It was a pretty sad day.

Thinking about that episode, I regret that Whitey-white had to go through all that for nothing. While she was healing, we had also been looking for homes for her and her puppies and actually had adopters waiting. She and her pups had a prospect for a good life, just waiting for her to get well. But I guess when its time for someone to go, nothing in the world can stop it from happening.
I really wish that she had been euthanized on the first visit, we could have spared her this pain, and in a practical aspect, we could have saved RM400 at least from her vet visits and the medication we spent on her. That money would have been used for the other dogs and cats instead. Thats a number of dogs and pups that could have been spayed at RM60 a dog. Thinking about money is cold, but thats what makes the world go round and shelters keep going.

Still, though, at least Whitey-white spent her last 2 weeks of life with love and care, in a comfortable place (but in pain). She had the best temperament, and hopefully the love given to her will help her in the next life to come. I can't regret that out of the whole experience. Maybe she gained something from the way she handled her experience. If we can't help her right now in this life, maybe love can help her in the next. Or maybe I'm just comforting myself. Questions with no answers, as always.

I wish we had taken pictures of her injuries, but they were so horrific I guess no one wanted to look at it and actually realize the extent of pain someone had let her get to. For she was a small, white terrier dog. Skinny, yes and dirty, but before all that also most likely someones neglected pet or breeding machine who got abandoned when she got wounded.

Add another person to the list of people to burn in hell eh?

On life and death and random wonderings: The first posting is always the longest

Following the case of Lester, the dog who suffered horrific burns on his body due to a cruel, cruel soul (if he has one!) who poured boiling oil on him, it seems wonderful that the dog has survived. I don't know if he is fully out of the woods yet, but the update on http://malaysiandogsdeservebetter.blogspot.com/ is positive.

I shall not rant on the cruelty of man, as that is a topic already worked to death in pet lover forums. Indeed, if wishes came true, I think that that cruel person might be already writhing in the fires of hell quite a number of times over.

Instead, to the topic of euthanasia.
Always a topic close to the heart of people, supporters and opposers tend to be quite.. passionate ... when discussing the topic. Not really a topic that many can discuss cold-bloodedly or logically really.
Personally, I still think in cases of animals who have suffered serious injuries and have a minimal chance to live, the kinder option might be to let them go. Especially in the case of strays, who also have a small chance of being rehomed. Of course, Lester has proven the will to survive, and I think that one needs to look into their eyes to see what they wish. For some, the will to survive is overwhelmingly strong against even the worst odds.

But on the other hand, there are so many other healthy strays dogs and puppies who also need a home, and food, shelter and medical treatment. Money being poured into one could have been distributed onto many instead, or be used to reduce the number of strays HUMANELY by a Neuter and Release Programme. The lower number of strays could mean less cruelty being perpetuated as there are less targets. Then again, if someones a cruel ass, they will still find ways. We can be practical and logical, but the world still needs a figurehead and examples. A world with no miracle would also be very bland indeed.

One point niggles in the whole business. Personal comments. Some people just seem to not be able to accept a different point of view, or a different opinion and option from the one they prescribe to. I think anonymous postings should not be allowed. If someone wishes to state an opinion, believe in it enough to state it openly and clearly, rather than hiding behind the anonymity of the internet. Also, perhaps to defend your views with a reasonable, thought out argument. It might prove more convincing that a single case-in-point and a 'I told you so' in a disappointingly rude manner.

Maybe that could be the topic for my next posting: Anonymity of the Internet: How far is too far?
Hehe