Sheena's Wake-Up Call

Decided to do away with my normal frivolous posts and put something serious here that led to the outrage of many people, especially animal lovers .

Unless you don't touch newspapers, we Malaysians would have read about the poor German Shephard Sheena's case. It came out as a front page article in the Malay Mail (the newspaper I write for) yesterday. (click on it for story for background if you have not read).

Today, there were more follow-up, including a report in the NST quoting the neighbour who reported the case to the authority. You will shake your head in disbelief. That jerk (pardon my language but he is!) literally planned to kill the dog in a slow, suffering way.

Cruelty to the dog is already bad enough and we thought justice would be carried out when the owner was arrested. But guess what? the sentence that was meted out on this sickening owner was RM100 fine! RM100 to an engineer who lived in USJ was nothing! What a joke?

Had been chatting online with my fellow bloggers and we were so outraged about this. Here is part of my conversation with Chipmunkrock (yeah, we have different identities on yahoo and MSN chat ;)

Bumble Bee says: the sickest part is the cheap fine
Bumble Bee says: with that i can buy 2 bags of dog food that last 3-4 months
ET says: tell me about it!!
ET says: they must come out with more stern punishment! - change the law!
Bumble Bee says: i know!!! 100 bucks? hello????? one can easily spend a lavish meal with that
ET says: Its soooo stupid and pathetic!
Bumble Bee says: (actually you can cut and paste this conversation edit it and put it in your blog!)
ET says: (hehe.. quite interesting idea)
ET says: actually when my colleague pointed it out to me, both of us were so outraged and said simultaneously `the owner should be hung!'
Bumble Bee says: it's ironic isnt it, that how some stray pups like Caramel are blessed to have a home and yet some pedigrees like Sheena suffer under the hands of her owner..
ET says: i know. and the irony is that owner was a former member of MKA! (in today's MM)
ET says: and the MKA ppl was also shocked and outraged.
Bumble Bee says: is it??? let me have a look..
ET says: how can someone be so utterly cruel.. if u dont want to dog, try give her away or at least to SPCA.
Bumble Bee says: but i cant get over the rm100 fine
ET says:He was torturing her to death!
ET says: yep, that's what shocked everyone!
Bumble Bee says: poor thing, you can see all the faeces on the floor
ET says: so pathetic and an insult. btw, NST report had the neighbour who reported the case to authority, saying that the `penalty was an insult' to her..
Bumble Bee says: it's an easy escape for the owner
ET says: i know.. and the nails.. so long that she couldn't walk anymore also..
ET says: actually i read about the case (mom pointed out to me) in a chinese paper a few days earlier..
Bumble Bee says: oh i see..i only saw the BIG PIC on MM front page
ET says: but at that time the owner was just arrested. It made headlines coz of the type of penalty meted on him!!

And then we digressed and talked about other animal-related stuff..

I wonder, is this a Malaysian thing? Why are there people who treat animals and pets like this? Apparently more than 2000 of animal abuse cases, mainly involving dogs, are reported annually. But this are just REPORTED figures. Imagine the real situation?

So they're JUST animals, and some think we have more important issues to worry about. But animals are also God's creatures, and animals do have feelings. Of course you can argue that how can we kill and eat animals then? That I don't know how to answer for now.. But Sheena's case, it is just plain heartless and evil. The owner adopted the dog as his pet in the first place and then decided just to let her die by grossly neglecting and starving her just because it was no longer convenient to have her around.

Can't he give her away? If no one wants the dog, at least give it to PAWS or SPCA which I know does not guarantee another happy home or long life.. but surely NOT like this?? What's wrong with this man?

And then our law! Hello? a fine of RM100, what type of punishment is it? Even someone who steals something out of hunger is fined more than that.. To me, this is a mockery to our judicial system and yes, this particular legislation needs to be changed and there're a few groups lobbying for it.

So on one hand, we need to raise the sentence to deter more animal abuse happening. But I still believe that it is far more effective in the long run when we raise awareness and educate our society on animal treatment and welfare.. (think campaign on AIDS awareness or the TakNak campaign against smoking)

Of course everything won't change over night. But we need to start somewhere. I hope that Sheena's death can be a wake up call.. and her suffering and `martyrdom' is at least not in vain.