JoTong related this incident to me. She recently discovered traps set near the hillside near where she feeds some of her dogs.
With the help of some friends, together, they managed to track down the house where the illegal foreign workers live. Apparently, these workers trap and eat dogs. But by the time they reached the house, it was already empty. It looked like all the workers had fled the scene.
So she made a police report but was told this was not within police jurisdiction and that she should report to the DVS, which she did, online.
Meanwhile, JoTong and her friends made copies of the police report and circulated it around the area with hopes that the news would get back to the illegal workers or their employers and they would stop doing this heinous act. Sadly, many of the people around the area were already well aware of the trapping and killing of dogs but nobody bothered to do anything about it at all.
Finally, DVS responded quoting AWA2015 Section 30: 2(a) which says:
Killing of animals
30. (1) No person shall kill by way of shooting with firearms
any dog, cat or any other animal which may be prescribed by the
Minister by notification in the Gazette, unless it is authorized by
the veterinary authority during emergency or for the purposes of
disease control.
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), the killing of any animal
is prohibited unless—
(a) the killing of the animal is for the purpose of human
consumption;
DVS explained that they have no authority to stop people “from eating dogs, cats or monkeys” and they could not take any action based on her report. The case was closed.
This is really sad, but that is the law, and the authorities will only act within what is stated in the laws of the country.
That being the case, JoTong says she will continue to dismantle the dog traps whenever she sees any of them. That is all she can do.
It’s true, that is all she can do since the law allows people to kill animals for human consumption. There is no exception to this law.
It’s just like catching-and-killing street animals. The law allows the councils to catch, and the killing is allowed for the purpose of population control, as stated in the same section of AWA2015, under subsection 2(e):
(e) the killing is done for the purpose of animal population control by any authorized authority under any written law;
And subsection 2 (g) says:
(g) the killing is for any other reasons as determined and certified by a veterinary authority or registered veterinary surgeon.
Back to this case, bravo to JoTong and her friends for (hopefully) crippling this one gang of illegal workers who traps and eats dogs and her determination to keep dismantling their traps.
There will be other places too since dog-eating is, unfortunately, in the culture of some foreigners and there are many of them in our country now. That said, I’ve also been told that some locals also eat dog meat. It’s really, really sad. This is a really imperfect world.
The bottom line is, what we can all do is to neuter, neuter, neuter and prevent more street animals from being born to suffer on the street.
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