MAY 18 — The tabling of the Animal Bill is long overdue and Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) looks forward to the beefed up Bill for its first reading in the Dewan Rakyat.  

The proposed Act should not be a feel good act but one that truly looks after animals when it comes to animal cruelties.

The current Animal Act has done little to protect animals and incidents of animal cruelty underline a crying need to put teeth into the law — one that truly bites and send a zero tolerance message to society, the community and to those who somehow think it is alright to mistreat animal.

While the bill maybe a good basis on which to start looking after animals when it comes to animal cruelty, the key problem may lie in poor or lax enforcement.  Cases of abuse in the past have met with  no follow up action, refusal of witness to testify  or enforcement officers failed to follow through right to the end in bringing the perpetrators to court.  

As a result horrific incidents of animal cruelty  have essentially gone unpunished or resulted only in slaps on the wrist,  demonstrating  the weakness of the federal legislation.

It is imperative that the new legislation calls for controls on the breeding of cats and dogs to help reduce the number of strays through  lawful and responsible pet  ownership. Enforcement of legislation is required for dogs over three months old to be licensed, vaccinated and microchipped.  

The same should apply for cats. 

Its not difficult to understand where strays originate. Dogs are allowed to roam freely and breed indiscriminately.  Added to this is the proliferation of dogs on building and construction sites, at storage yards, warehouses and subsequently dumped when projects are completed or re-location to a new site. 

There has been a rapid increase of pet shops  everywhere to cater to consumer demands.  

Fewer animals would have to be put down if the government tightened its regulation of pet shops.  

Action must  be taken to control the breeding and sale of puppies and kittens. The pet shop trade is a lucrative industry  where animals  are sold at exorbitant  prices.  

It is these unlicensed breeders causing the vast majority of the complaints about “puppy mills” and the bill should be  addressing  those rogue operations.

Finally the ease of abandonment of pets by owners who felt it too cumbersome to keep them anymore.  

Reducing abandonment, responsible ownership and stopping unwanted litters should be the way forward.

Animals are sentient beings. It is time to reflect this basic fact in our amended legislation that is supposed to protect them.

S M Mohd Idris

President, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM)

* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.