Question 1

Where is Malaysia?

Accepted Answer

Malaysia is a country in SE Asia, bordered to the north by Thailand and to the south by Singapore and Indonesia. With a population of over 32 million, Malaysia is the world's 43rd most populous country

Question 2

What are the ethnic groups in Malaysia?

Accepted Answer

Malaysia is a multicultural and multiracial country. Malaysian citizens are divided along local ethnic lines, with approximately 70 % considered “Bumiputera” a term used in Malaysia to describe Malay (Muslims) and various indigenous peoples. Chinese account for approximately 23% of the population and Indians 7 %.

Question 3

Is Malaysia considered a developing country?

Accepted Answer

Yes

Question 4

What are the different religious beliefs in Malaysia?

Accepted Answer

As of the 2020 Population and Housing Census, 63.5 percent of the population practices Islam; 18.7 percent Buddhism; 9.1 percent Christianity; 6.1 percent Hinduism; and 2.7 percent other religion or gave no information.

Question 5

Is dog breeding well-regulated in Malaysia?

Accepted Answer

No. There is often irresponsible dog breeding resulting in dogs that are perceived to be “aesthetically imperfect” and are subsequently dumped on the streets. Also once elderly dogs have been “used for breeding”, grow old and unwell, and are not required anymore, there are many incidences when these dogs are simply abandoned on the streets.

Question 6

What factors affect perceptions of animal welfare in developing countries?

Accepted Answer

According to Mugenda and Croney in an article published in 2019 by Purdue University, the main factors are economics, culture, and religion.

Question 7

How do religious beliefs influence animal treatment?

Accepted Answer

The beautiful religion of Islam has always viewed animals as a special part of God’s creation. The Qu’ran, the Hadith, and the history of Islamic civilization offer many examples of kindness, mercy, and compassion for animals.
Al- Qu’ran,6:38 “There is no animal that lives on the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but they form communities like you. We have not missed anything in the Book. Then, to their Lord all of them shall be gathered.”
For more information, please visit:

Buddhism is known to be a religion that practices and promotes peace for both human and non-human animals. Some even argue that Buddhism supports animal welfare because compassion for all living beings is highly integrated in the beliefs of Buddhism.

Most Christians believe in the sanctity of life, which means that life is sacred because it is created by God. It therefore belongs to God and is only God’s to give or take away. This extends to non-human life and therefore anyone who neglects or ill-treats animals is not respecting God's creation.

Hindu teachings hold the belief that all living creatures have a soul, and that they are a part of the supreme soul. Therefore, all living creatures – both human and non-human – are respected similar to Buddhist traditions.

Two aspects of religion shown to affect people’s attitude includes religiosity (defined as the degree of commitment to one’s faith) and denomination. (Hand & Van Liere 1984 Social Forces, Heleski et al 2006 Anthrozoos). There may exist the assumption that those who identify as (deeply religious) care more deeply about animals than those who are not.

However, research has shown a decreasing concern for animal welfare as tendencies to strongly uphold religious values increase. (Deemer,Lobao 2011 Rural Sociology; Serpell 2004 Animal Welfare). One study, for example, showed some denominations of Christianity that adhere to the Bible more strictly actually seem to display less support for animal rights. (Videras 2006 J. Socioeconomics). This could be partly due to pre-occupation with human concerns over animals-welfare issues as seen in the New Testament of the Bible (Phillips et al 2012 UFAW Journal.), and a utilitarian view of animals as being primarily a source of food and livelihood.

Some Muslims have also been taught incorrectly to see dogs as impure and some “Islamic teachers have developed several injunctions” that warn Muslims against most contact with dogs. People have then used this view to justify the abuse and neglect of dogs, even though cruelty contradicts the Qur’an’s view that all animals form “communities like you.”
However, reports of animal abuse or indifference about their welfare is seen across all religions and socio-economic status and is not partial to any religion.

Question 8

What factors are contributing to the increased number of stray dogs roaming the streets of Malaysia?

Accepted Answer

When new developments are built, construction teams bring in dogs to guard the site and don't bother to neuter the dogs. The dogs are fed well during the construction period and quickly begin to breed. Once the construction is done, the workers abandon the dogs who are often harmed or complained about by the residents who move in to the completed buildings. The prevalence of street dogs in Malaysia is intimately related to the municipal cleanliness measures- or the lack there of. (SN Juliah Malay Mail Nov 2019.) Because the stray dogs often live by scavenging trash, more exposed waste equals more healthy dogs and more pups.  There is poor implementation of the trap, neuter, release, manage (TNR-M) strategy by the government, despite this proving to be the most effective and humane method of their population control.They simply do not allocate TNR-M is their budget, yet they have large budgets allocation for dog catching, culling and killing.Many pet owners keep dogs to guard their home. They do not neuter or vaccinate them against disease. Hence when a female dog has puppies or when their dogs get sick, many simply abandon them.Shelters are struggling to feed and protect the growing number of strays.

Question 9

Which government agency is responsible for managing street dogs in Malaysia?

Accepted Answer

Local government in Malaysia is comprised of city councils, municipal councils and district council to total approximately 144. Each city’s town councils is responsible for investigating animal complaints or disturbances reported to them by the public. When it is deemed that the animal should be removed from an area, their personnel are tasked with trapping these dogs. Many are not well or uniformly trained. Some of their methods are known as pull, snag, and swing, or they use sharp objects or lasso ropes that can lead to significant injuries to these innocent animals. Once these dogs have been caught (some injured), they are made to suffer more in small, crowded cages without food or water, waiting to be die or be killed in municipal council kennels. These council pounds are not animal shelters. The sign in Malay on these facilities says "pest control center." People cannot walk in, meet the dogs or choose to adopt. They are sent to these places only to be killed.  Most municipal council kennels are saturated, poorly run and lack space. Therefore, these dogs are either abandoned by the council in secluded areas without food and water to starve and die or are killed on the spot by lethal injection most of the time without a licensed veterinarian present.

Question 10

Why are there increasing cases of injustice against stray dogs in Malaysia and other developing countries?

Accepted Answer

Most people see stray dogs as a nuisance and a danger. It takes just a few tragic incidents of dog attacks to turn people against stray dogs and make them all seem dangerous. A dog does not bite unless provoked, sick or in pain.

Specifically neutered and well managed dogs can live harmoniously within a community if well managed.

As neutered dogs are much less aggressive and if they well fed by community feeders, will be less likely to act as a nuisance.

Unfortunately, fear and ignorance have caused many Malaysian residents and authorities to see street dogs as a menace and pursue elimination via harsh means such as poisoning, culling and inhumane euthanasia.

Most dogs are removed and killed before a thorough investigation is carried out to validate the nature of the complaint against them.

However, for every dog that is killed, another usually appears to take over that dog’s area. Mass spaying and neutering, often known as animal birth control (ABC), and being tolerant to street dogs is the only humanely proven way for humanely reducing street dog numbers.

Question 11

Which laws in Malaysia pertain to how strays are managed?

Accepted Answer

a) Animal Act 1953- an outdated act that needs revision. 
https://www.dvs.gov.my/dvs/resources/auto%20download%20images/560df8b11211d.pdf

b) Local Government Act 1976- Section 80 and 81 of this acts gives total power to local authorities to put down/ destroy any animal deemed to be a nuisance or spread disease. 
https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/mal130371.pdf

c) Animal Welfare Act 2015
https://www.cljlaw.com/files/bills/pdf/2015/MY_FS_BIL_2015_19.pdf

Definition of “animal cruelty” in Malaysian law has expanded in scope from the original items in Section 44(1) of the 1953 Animals Act, to 21 items listed in Section 29 of the 2015 AWA.

This includes mutilation, neglect, use of cruel equipment, shooting for sport, and animal fights. Offenders under this Section may be liable from RM20,000 to RM100,000 in fines and/or 3 years of imprisonment.

However, there are many exceptions to this, to name a few:

When the act of killing is done for the purpose of animal population control by ANY authorized authority

When the act involves pest control or disease control. Hence many innocent strays have been killed when there have been reports of rabies cases. Very few of these strays were actually carrying the disease (4 out of 2000 killed in Penang in 2015).  The “anti-rabies” operation in Sarawak had filled more than 17,000 dogs since 2017.

Where the animals are being fed to another animal within natural eating habits ( e.g feeding live mice to snakes)

Hence we see a clear double standard here- a law that penalizes the public for abuse (great if it were well enforced) but one that lets any government authority destroy animals deemed to be a public nuisance or due to overpopulation. Even though the reason for the overpopulation falls back to lack of humane effective TNR-M models.

https://www.globalanimallaw.org/downloads/database/national/malaysia/Malaysia-Animal-Welfare-Act-2015.pdf

Question 12

How does Malaysia rank in the Animal Protection Index?

Accepted Answer

Malaysia ranks C by the API working group. However, this modest ranking is largely based on the presence of the 2015 Animal Welfare Legislation. Unfortunately, this legislation is poorly enforced. It also applies only to the public. the government is free to destroy “hapuskan” stray dogs deemed to be a nuisance as the 1976 local government act clearly gives them this authority.

Question 13

Why Trap, Neuter Vaccinate Release- Manage?

Accepted Answer

TNVR-M is a humane method in controlling the stray population as it promotes sterilization of strays over euthanasia or inhumane elimination executed by pounds and local councils.

Many experts agree, if the TNRV-M strategy is adopted, the number of strays could drop at a rate of 20% a year and progressively that will lead to stray free states.

Most neutered animals are also less aggressive and submissive; therefore, their presence will be less intimidating to tolerant residents.

Please see Human Society International’s site for more information:

https://www.hsi.org/news-media/why_spayneuter_important/

Question 14

Is it better to release after spaying these animals despite the dangers they might face?

Accepted Answer

Sterilized strays should only be released in a managed situation, hence we have advocated for TNVR-M (Trap,Neuter, Vaccinate -Release-Manage).

We believe animals should be released only to controlled situations where they will receive regular food, water and veterinary care and will not be subjected to “re-capture” ( within reason), hence it is important to have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with local councils before releasing these animals or making sure they are in a community that welcomes them

Question 15

How many strays are there in Malaysia?

Accepted Answer

It is estimated to be around 6 million.
In 2019 alone, 29,463 dogs were captured by the councils in Selangor, one of the most populated states in Malaysia and most of them were euthanized.

Question 16

Why should we donate to F5 and not directly to rescuers/shelters in Malaysia?

Accepted Answer

We welcome donations to any reputable society striving for change. F5 wants to help change the landscape of population management from kill to no kill. Among others. Killing does not work. Sheltering healthy dogs is not practical due to the sheer number of dogs.
F5 is an accredited federal US 501(c)(3) organization. Your donation is tax deferred is you pay US Income Taxes. We also have to practice and abide by stringent book-keeping practices and donation guidelines.

Question 17

What is 501(c)(3) status

Accepted Answer

To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. 
To maintain 501(c)(3) organization status, F5 will have stringent annual reporting obligation to the IRS, and operation in accordance with stated exempt purpose(s). 501(c)(3) organizations are exempt from federal and state taxes. Individual and corporate donors will be able to deduct their contributions from their personal and corporate taxes in the Unites States.  Foundations, corporations, and government grants nearly exclusively require nonprofits to be 501(c)(3)s to receive grants or donations.

Question 18

Does F5 share annual board meeting minutes and tax statements on its website?

Accepted Answer

We plan to share annual meeting minutes tax statements on our website, yes.

Question 19

Does F5 have any paid employees?

Accepted Answer

No, we do not. We are all doing this for the love of dogs and want to stop inhumanity.

Question 20

Why does F5 mention dogs and not cats?

Accepted Answer

F5 loves all street and homeless animals. We advocate humanity, spay-neutering of cats as well. Currently, we feel the welfare and humanity towards cats in Malaysia exceeds that of dogs.

Question 21

Does F5 have its own shelter?

Accepted Answer

No, we do not.

Question 22

Does F5 plan to bring stray dogs to the USA to be rehomed?

Accepted Answer

Currently, the cost is prohibitive. However, this is an option in the future.

Question 23

Who is Filbert?

Accepted Answer

Filbert (March 4, 2005 to Feb 9, 2022)  is a dachshund who was rescued at age 7 from his handler. Filbert was neglected and spent much time in a cage, hence he was insecure and displayed aggression when he was initially rescued. However, with patience, love, nurturing, and kindness, he became the most amazing, sweet, gentle little man. He inspired the founders of this society to honor him by improving the welfare of other dogs. Please rescue a dog and give them a second chance. Be patient with them and they will love you endlessly. Do not shop, adopt! 
You will save a life, make room for shelters to save another and that good deed will remain with you, forever. True love is “breed less”.

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