KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali has suspended the eviction notice for an animal shelter in Subang Jaya housing 260 dogs and 280 cats, The Star daily reported today.

The suspension was obtained by Paws Animal Welfare Association (PAWS) just one week away from being booted out of the state government’s land, while Azmin said he will personally seek the resolution of this matter.

“I will speak with the district officer and see how best this matter can be solved,” Azmin was quoted saying yesterday at an event where PAWS manager Edward Lim had gone to seek the mentri besar’s intervention.

Azmin said that PAWS and the Selangor Land Office will meet today, adding that the details of a suggestion on the issuing of a temporary occupation licence to PAWS will have to be studied.

Lim said PAWS had been based on the same plot of land for the past 28 years, adding that the organisation was clueless on where it could move to if evicted, but said Azmin had now given them “hope”.

“We were in a quandary but his reassuring words and suspension of the eviction notice has given us some hope to hold on to,” he was quoted saying by English-language daily.

Yesterday, The Sun daily reported that PAWS was issued a 14-day eviction notice by the Petaling Jaya land office on November 10, without indication of any development plan on the one-acre site near the Subang Jaya airport at Jalan Lapangan Ara Damansara.

Lim said the notice period does not give them nearly enough time to find a suitable location to build a new shelter and move the hundreds of cats and dogs rescued from the streets.

PAWS President Nicholas Au told The Sun that part of their mission is to help local authorities and the public control the population of stray animals in the Klang Valley, particularly in Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya and Shah Alam.