IPOH, May 10 ― After five years, the Trap Neuter Release and Manage (TNRM) programme will officially take off in the city.
It is spearheaded by the Ipoh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals (ISPCA) with the support of the city's major animal welfare organisations and independent rescuers.
The project seeks to reduce the number of caught strays being released at the Papan landfill as is in current times.
The project was first started by ISPCA in 2017 and to date, some 6,500 strays in the city had been spayed or neutered.
ISPCA president Ricky Soong said under the project, the Ipoh City Council (MBI) would handover all caught strays to the society.
“We will keep the strays for up to three weeks while waiting for their feeders to come forward to claim them.
“Our panel of veterinarians will also give the strays a check-up during that time and strays that are found to be sick will be put down,” he said.
Currently, all strays caught by MBI within the city are released at the landfill if unclaimed.
However, with no food and water, the strays are dependent on feeders to feed them.
Speaking to Malay Mail, Soong said if the strays are unclaimed after the stipulated period, it will be spayed or neutered before it is released at the landfill.
“At least the strays will not procreate further and add on to the population of strays in the area as what is happening currently,” he added.
In the meantime, dog lovers can also drop by at ISPCA shelter to adopt any of the strays caught by the council.
“All strays adopted will either be spayed or neutered and tagged with a microchip besides given a red collar with the wordings TNRM written on it.”
“The microchip is to allow monitoring by the council whereby in the event they bump into unsupervised dogs during their enforcement rounds, microchipped dogs will not be taken,” he added, noting that enforcement personnel are armed with readers to scan all dogs caught.
In preparation for the project, a new block with additional cages will be put up at ISPCA current shelter, located at Jalan Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, formerly known as Jalan Gopeng.
Soong said 70 cages will be built, each measuring 1.5 meters by three meters.
“The block will be placed next to our current shelter,” he said, adding that the project is estimated to cost RM400,000.
To raise funds for the project, a fundraising dinner will be held on July 30 at the Exquisite Seafood Restaurant, Medan Bercham Bistari.
Tickets for the dinner, said Soong, are on sale now.
“We hope to start building the new block next month with TNRM to start in September,” he added.
Soong said the project would put to rest the finger pointing of who should be responsible for strays in the city.
“Strays did not choose to be born. Only by implementing TNRM, the population of strays will eventually reduce,” he added.
All donations to the society are tax-exempted.
For more details on the project, visit ISPCA Facebook page.
