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KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — Animal lover Muhammad Azmi Ismail, who made headlines after rescuing hundreds of stray dogs and cats, died last night from a brain haemorrhage following a second stroke last week. He was 58.
Azmi, known to many as Pak Mie, passed away at the Ampang Hospital Intensive Care Unit at 11.25pm last night and left behind his wife Halijah Idris, 68, two children, and nearly 1,000 dogs and cats in his makeshift shelter in Alor Star, Kedah.
“We were hoping for a miracle. But Allah loves him more,” Halijah, better known as Mak Intan, told English daily New Straits Times yesterday.
Mak Intan explained that Pak Mie had made the trip to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday to find help for the shelter, but had forgotten to take his high blood pressure medication.
He did not wake up from his sleep on Friday morning and was rushed to the Sultan Mizan Military Hospital in Wangsa Maju, where doctors declared that he had suffered from a stroke.
It was his second stroke after the first one in April, Mak Intan said.
The couple had been taking care of stray animals since 1990, but the shelter that housed around 700 dogs and 200 cats was targeted by local and religious authorities, with the former threatening eviction in 2013.
A video of them in 2013 thrust them into media spotlight, earning nationwide adoration as a Muslim couple who dedicated their lives to saving stray and abandoned dogs despite public criticism and condemnation.
The couple had reportedly been sleeping in their 30-year-old Proton Saga car to watch over their animals, feeding them with rice, meat and giblets in a shed.
Mak Intan will now keep the shelter going after Pak Mie’s death, according to a report by English daily The Star last week.
