IPOH, Feb 20 — The Trap Neuter Release and Manage (TNRM) programme initially spearheaded by the Ipoh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals (ISPCA) will now be a private initiative.
ISPCA president Ricky Soong said the society was supposed to build additional cages at its Jalan Raja Dr Nazrin Shah shelter in preparation for the programme but due to financial constraints, the plan had to be put on hold.
“We targeted to raise RM400,000 for the programme through a fundraising dinner in July but at the end of the event, we did not manage to get the amount required.”
However, not long after that, the society was approached by three businessmen, who are animal lovers, and they offered to continue with the programme.
“They have rented a 0.6 hectares land at Simpang Pulai and construction for the cages to keep the strays is now in full swing,” he said.
Soong said besides agreeing to foot the land’s RM3,000 monthly rental and the cost to construct the cages, the businessmen also agreed to pay for the food to feed the strays kept within and workers to clean the area.
“The enclosure can take in at least 60 dogs at a time,” he said.
Soong said the programme remains the same despite the inclusion of the businessmen whereby all strays caught by Ipoh City Council (MBI) would be sent to the enclosure to undergo neutering or spaying.
“After it is neutered or spayed, the dogs would be put up for adoption.
“Dogs that fail to get adopted will be released at the place where it was initially caught contrary to the current practise of releasing them at the Papan landfill,” he added.
The dogs would only be kept for two weeks pending its release.
“All strays that go to the enclosure 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.
Enforcement personnel have readers to scan all dogs caught.
As for the cost of neutering and spaying, Soong said it would be borne by the respective rescuers and feeders where the strays were caught.
“We believe there will not be a problem in raising the procedure cost.”
Soong said veterinarians would determine if the strays are fit to undergo the neutering and spaying.
“If they are found to be unfit to undergo the procedure, they will have their medical conditions treated first.”
“Only those who face serious medical conditions will be put to sleep as it will not be feasible to spend thousands just to treat a very sick dog when the money could be used to spay or neuter healthy ones.”
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.
