KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 ― An outpouring of public anger has forced the Tanjong Malim district council to call off a campaign to enlist the public in its stray removal efforts that would have seen it paying RM10 for every canine captured.

Council chief Khairil Akhtar Ghazali said the decision was made in under a day after reviewing the feedback from the public as well as speaking to the Malaysian Animal Welfare Society.

“People have misunderstood what we were trying to do and they call us cruel for allegedly killing the dogs, there were all kinds of insults, even though we have already announced that we will not go ahead with this.

“We've got the feedback, so we have no problem and will review this. So last night, we announced that we will not proceed and we appreciate the public's comments,” he told Malay Mail Online over the phone.

He pointed out that the decision was made last night, after a poster titled “Kempen 1 anjing 10 ringgit” (RM10 per dog campaign) was posted on the council’s Facebook page about noon. The initiative was supposed to start today until June 12.

Khairil then added that his council will look into a better way to overcome the problems of stray dogs.

He also explained that the current directive from the Urban Wellbeing, Housing  and Local Government Ministry is for councils to hand over stray dogs caught to the Veterinary Department for further action.

“We get a lot of complaints and every time the council conducts an operation, it doesn't go smoothly. So this time, we were trying to create awareness among the public but we did not say we were going to kill the dogs,” he said.

But an officer from the Veterinary Department headquarters, who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the strays captured would be put down according to procedures.

“According to the guidelines, all those animals will be euthanised in a humane way if we find that the dogs have diseases or injuries that cannot be treated, or they would suffer if were kept alive.

“The euthanasia procedure must be done by a registered veterinarian,” he said.

When asked what happens to strays that are found to be healthy, he could not answer.

He said that local councils will usually keep captured strays for a week to allow their owners to claim them, after which they will be sent either to their own veterinarians or to the Veterinary Department to be euthanised.

The Perak Veterinarian Department could not be reached for comments.

The council’s announcement yesterday was greeted with outrage by Malaysians, who lambasted the campaign on social media.

Thanuja Ananthan, a former Miss World Malaysia and animal rights activist wrote in a series of tweet yesterday to condemn the move as well as questioning the source of funds to pay for each dog being brought in.

“RM10 for a dogs life?! If there is any truth to this enforcement MDTM (Majlis Daerah Tanjung Malim) this is barbaric!” she wrote.

The calling off of the campaign also brought the council little solace, as Malaysians continued to rebuke it for the initiative.

“Kalau dah tau tak pandai tentang haiwan jalanan, tanya pada yg lebih pandai. Bekerjasama dengan NGO yang ada. Buat TNRM. Kalau tak tau apa itu TNRM, google la. Buat kerja sikit. Jgn tau nak membunuh je.” (If you don’t know much about strays, ask the experts. Work with NGOs. Conduct TNRM. If you don’t know what TNRM is, google it. Do a little bit of research. Don’t just kill,” a user named Shah Dolores said, referring to the sterilisation programme to trap, neuter, release and manage.

Others urged it to consider less medieval initiatives that did not involve killing the strays and to instead place them in animal shelters.