Monday, December 05, 2005

Barking Dogs' and Meowing Cats' proxy War !

Recently the local Town Councils in Malaysia attempted to implement the control of pets ownership in their municipalities. Dogs has been singled out as the major nuisance. One of the local town council, Majlis Perbadaran Subang Jaya ( MPSJ) annouced the possible implementation of making it mandatory for Dog owners to obtain certification of dog training before dog ownership license can be issued. The annoucement met with substantial pouring of opinions against this new rullings. They are also questioning why cats owners are not subject to this new rullings. My opinion is, both the cats and dogs are equally annoyings when they are not properly taken care of !
In malaysia, most people own pets for the sake of owning it ! When comes to resposible mangement of the pets, most pet owners are guilty of abuses. Taking into considerations that most Malaysian live in terrace house with a land area of 22’ x 75’, I am not a health expert, but my feeling is, it is not healthy at all for human beings and pets competing for the small limited space.
I live in a neighbourhood where everyday I am subject to enviromental abused caused by the pets. Sometimes I do get migrane caused by the constant barking of dogs and meowings of cats on heats. For evening walks, I do occassionally stepping on to the droppings of dogs and cats. With the cats, they also dropped smelly droppings in my small patch of gardens and balcony, and scavanged my garbage compartment no matter how secured it is. Of course, we can not blamed the cats or the dogs. These are the works of selfish irresponsible pet owners.
In a multi-racial Malaysia. It is predicatable that, for pet ownership, the Malaysian Chinese keeps dogs as pets, the Malaysian Malays keep cats as pets, and the Malaysian Indian keeps both cats and dogs as pets. The pets ownership issue can be potentially a very sensitive issue. Isn’t it fun living in Malaysia ?
I would like to suggest to the local town council to consider the following reccomendations when formulating their policies on pet ownership :
  • Before issuing pets ( dogs & cats ) licenses to pets owners, the town council must ensure not only the pets need to have certifications of trainings, but the pet owners must also have certificate of competency in responsible management of pets.
  • Allocate “pit stop” in public park to allow pet ( maybe the owner also) a proper place to answer the call of nature. The “pit stop” must also have simple instructions to teach the pet owner how to dispose those droppings.
  • When qualified pet owner apply for pet ownership license, the town council must advise the pet owner not to keep dog if the neighbour is a Muslim, likewise, not to keep cats if the neighbour is a non muslim.

When comes to pet ownership control, I am puzzled why most of the local town councils seemed to have “dislikings” for dogs. After all, dogs are men best friends. To me, the pet owners ( for both dogs and cats ) are a nuisance when they do not give proper management of the pets under their custody. Go, go, go… go after the pet owners, not the pets !

Another irrational self mumblings from lack of coffee! I need black coffee to make me think straight….

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