Care & Actions for Strays (CAS): As much as we do not condone poisoning as a method of population control, we need to realise and tackle the root cause of the problem - IRRESPONSIBLE ANIMAL OWNERS who do not sterilise their animals and cruelly dump unwanted animals all over Brunei leading to severe over population of animals !
The main problem is not the government nor its officers doing their jobs. Cursing them and getting upset with them will not solve the problem. During our dialogues with the respective government agencies, we were asked to offer alternative solutions to control the dog population. While we have the solutions, we lack the necessary resources to implement it so that the government agencies can stop poisoning as a tool for population control.
Apart from the resources that are needed, including funds and manpower etc, we also need the understanding of the public cos the government agencies do not go around randomly looking for dogs to poison but rather they ONLY ACT UPON COMPLAINS FROM THE PUBLIC and they need to do something when there is a public complain.
So even if we have ALL the resources that we need, we still need the whole community to be more tolerant of strays to allow us to achieve long term sustainable solutions.
In short, we NEED TO WORK TOGETHER as a community from all angles to achieve a humane society where humans and animals can co-exist harmoniously and where the best of humans can be brought out, NOT THE WORST !
We all can play a part :
(1) STERILISE YOUR PETS
(2) FUND STERILISATION OF STRAYS
(3) BE MORE TOLERANT OF STRAYS
(4) STOP BUYING PETS, ADOPT THE HOMELESS INSTEAD
(5) OPEN UP YOUR HOMES TO TAKE IN SOME STRAYS
(6) SHARE RESPSONSIBLE PET OWNERSHIP WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES
To also clarify further, according to the government head vet, THERE IS NO RABIES IN BRUNEI ! So for those of you who have been mis-informed or have misconstrued that ALL dogs carry rabies, please check your facts.
Thank you to all our Muslim supporters who have given so much insights abt Islam, Muslim and dogs. We really need a lot of help in this area to create and conduct educational materials in this aspect. Pls contact us via email to help promote positive awareness and make a difference. We really desperately need to create materials with quotes and teachings from the Holy Book.
To all of you who think that just because dogs occasionally attack humans, or because some dogs carry diseases, please understand that it still does not justify being cruel to the dogs, to any dog or animal.
Why dogs or any animal for that matter, attack humans, please watch National Geographic "Dog Whisperer" and other documentaries for insights into the animal world. In fact in the animal world, they ONLY kill when they are hungry and this was captured by photographer Michel Denis-Huot in Kenya's Masai Mara. He captured pictures of 3 cheetah brothers chasing a group of impalas (deers) and when they caught the weakest one, to his amazement, the cheetahs only wanted to play with it and did so affectionately without hurting it one bit !
So why dogs attack humans? And dogs who attack humans get put down. What about humans who attack dogs and animals? What should we do with these humans? If we were to act by our own standards, then we should be putting down too these people who attack animals !
By the same token, humans carry diseases too so should we be running around putting down all these disease carry humans too? Or do we put down those humans who cannot contribute and some are even a burden to society e.g. the old, the sick, the invalids, the special needs, the criminals etc etc etc.....
We don't because we share this planet together with every living being and it is our responsibility to take care of those who are weak. It is our blessing to be able to care for those who need us, the healthy and strong ones and by the same token, we also have a responsibility towards these strays and animals living amongst us in our urban environment WHO DID NOT ASK TO BE PUT HERE AMONGST US in the first place !
These animals have no voice and no choice. Humans do ! Make the right choice and do the right thing ! Even if you cannot help in any way, you can be more tolerant and learn how to behave when strays are around.
For those of you who support poisoning or any form of mass culling as a means of dog population control, look up the internet. There is a wealth of information out there to tell you that mass culling has never worked, not for over a hundred years ! And it will continue to be an highly ineffective means and all these are documented by the World Health Organisation as well who gets involved in dog population control due to rabies deaths in countries like India where dog population control is a matter of life and death for humans, not simply because of nuisance or eyesore as is the case in Brunei.
More and more countries are turning to sterilisation as this has proven to be highly effective in dog population control and is of course a much more humane method of population control but again we need the entire community to come together and play its part.
Start with your own animals, how many of you have unsterilized pets? Not only dogs but cats as well. In recent years, we had to increase our spending on cats, draining our very very limited funds which otherwise could have been used for dogs. There are many many cat owners with unsterilised cats, allowing them to breed rampantly and then dumping them all over Brunei when they can no longer manage. This results in many of the cats getting sick and also even more rampant breeding. We have had to rescue so many more cats and expenses for cats increased more then 20 folds !
Let's all play our parts and work towards a stray free Brunei through humane methods. It can be done but requires all of us to work together ! We will continue to work with the government agencies to completely stop poisoning but the responsibility should not fall on the shoulders of only a few individuals. All of Brunei needs to play their part too.
And for those of you feeding strays, pls pls pls pls....get them sterilised ! Feeding strays must also come with the responsibility of ensuring they DO NOT BREED ANY FURTHER. Otherwise you are only creating a bigger problem. Not that we discourage feeding of strays but they MUST BE STERILSIED TOO. If funding is the main problem that the strays you are feeding are not being sterilsied, then find ways to raise funds for them to be sterilised or get in touch with us.
