KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 — A former employee of the Malaysia Dog Training centre (MDT) has accused the centre’s founder C. Samy Velu of being present during a video showing allegedly abusive dog training methods which went viral recently.
KS Selvaganesh said he has lodged a police report at the Pantai police station in Kuala Lumpur, claiming the training caught on video was done under Samy Velu’s supervision.
“I was forced to do that towards the golden retriever dog by Master Trainer Samy Velu Chandrasagaran and [in] the video itself [one] can listen to him giving me further instructions to 'give nicely' to the dog because [it refused] to drop the chew bone from the mouth.
“I have been forced by Master Trainer Samy Velu Chandrasagaran to do this type of training where it is his training methodology —Training Sam’s Way — and to prove this incident happened under his supervision I have an eyewitness K Suseylan who was also appointed in the same position as me,” Selvaganesh wrote in his police report.
Samy Velu was one of the top eight finalists of Cesar’s Rescue: Asia, a reality TV show that featured US celebrity dog trainer Cesar Millan, also known as the Dog Whisperer, going in search of the region’s best dog trainers.
On his website, Samy Velu said he was mentored by Cheri Wullff Lucas, one of Millan’s master trainer and a notable dog behaviourist.
Suseylan too had lodged a report against his former employer who had accused both him and his wife of trying to defame MDT through a fake Facebook account and by spreading the viral video which was first uploaded by Facebook user Andrew Lim.
“He accused me of exposing the training videos and claimed that my wife was the one who recorded the video.
“He also accused me of operating a fake Facebook account to defame and slander towards [sic] his company, when I had nothing to do with the video that went viral on Facebook,” Suseylan wrote in his police report adding that he is lodging the report as he fears for his safety.
Both Suseylan and Selvaganesh lodged their reports in response to a police report lodged by Samy Velu regarding the allegedly abusive methods recorded on the videos.
In his report, Samy Velu had accused his former trainees Selvaganesh and wife M Maithili, as well as former manager Suseylan of conducting the training behind his back and recording the videos, adding that all three had left their jobs.
All three former employees had also uploaded videos of their confession on Facebook, explaining their side of the story.
In his confession video, Suseylan said at the time the video was recorded, he was not a manager and had joined as a trainee on March 12. He added that he was appointed as a manager effective Sept 28 and said he had the offer letter signed by his former employer Samy Velu.
He also uploaded his employment contract and promotion letter with MDT.
Selvaganesh on the other hand said that everything he did in the video was instructed by Samy Velu and another senior trainer Sulochini Unni Narayanan Kutty.
“So, if you see, look at the video guys, when the dog refused to let go of the chewbone, I asked Sam what to do and he said ‘give it to the dog nicely’,” he said in his confession video, referring to Samy Velu.
“I really didn’t have the heart to do that, whack the dog…so I carried it via the scruff. But this method was also taught to me by Sam, he said there was science behind it as a mother dog would carry her puppies by the scruff of the neck.
“So that’s what I did but eventually after I realised there are a lot of abusing [sic] techniques taught by him and practised there, I felt guilty and that was the reason I left the company,” said Selvaganesh who also apologised profusely in his video.
In her confession video, Maithili began with an apology, and she could be seen sobbing several times.
“The training method which took place in April where I was training a Doberman puppy and slapped the puppy because the puppy wasn’t listening to my orders…my senior trainer Sulochini taught me how to do this.
“She said if you do this the dog will respect you. All this took place in Malaysia Dog Training premises supervised by C. Samy Velu and now he is putting the blame on us, washing his hands and saying we are not using his training [methods] and shooting arrows at us [sic] to safeguard himself.
“I’ve made [an] official police report against him saying that he has cheated us and he has fooled us by saying this is how you should train a dog,” said Maithili.
All three advised the public not to send their beloved canines to MDT for boarding or for training.
