I liked Sundays morning, laze around, wakes up slowly, listen to some jazz music and having breakfast. After having an enjoyable time with my breakfast, I logged on the internet to check our CAS email.
We only received one email today. It is from a student of 18yrs old who spotted a litter of pups in a corner of a Chinese market, located in Bandar.
Arranged with another volunteer to check out this litter of pups, to take some nice, good close-up shots so that to enable us to re-home them, we set off with packets of food and bottles of mineral water.
On the way to that Chinese market cum restaurant in Bandar, my volunteer friend kept emphasising in the car, how much she does not like this area, how much she has dread to come to this place since she was a child, how bloody this place smells, how creepy this place was.
Me, being a Singaporean (not a Bruneian) whom seldom travels, other than office and home, have no clue what type of place could be that bad….
Upon entering the small lane leading to our destination, I have come to realise where my volunteer friend was getting at...
Indeed, only at the start of the lane, there were already 10dogs sitting on the sides of the road. According to this volunteer, there could be hundreds of them in this area!
Formally, this volunteer has worked with another friend to help to spay many animals here, all at their own pocket money. But when people start dumping new pups here, the problem was never solved.
I would describe this place is like a Hell for Dogs. There are just too many dogs here, fighting for food and territories. This is really a dumping sites for dogs! Just like you see the pile of rubbish when you drove past Subok, for here, you see huge number of dogs from the start till the end of the lane! According to this volunteer again, ignorant people think the restaurant here would feed them, that’s why they all chose to dump at this place.
These dogs had to fight for food, fight for territory, fight for almost everything.. Just entering the lane, I heard so many barking and crying of dogs, so many fighting. How sad they sound.. My heart almost melted. I have no idea where the cries of dogs came from. I could only hear them but I could not see them. It just filled the air.. I have entered a place of sadness, a place of misery, a place of no happiness. None of the dogs looked happy, all of them looked sick, weary, hungry, yearning for some tender love, hoping for someone who might stop the car and say to them “Come on, let’s go home…” But that would never happen to any of them….
It even make me teared just the thought of them in such plight. We have heard stories that poisoning is so common there. Dogs yearning for food would eat whoever came to feed them. However, majority came with bad intentions. They came with poison. They came to send them off in a deadly and inhumane way. All of them who ate the poison ended up dead and fallen into drains. Some of them are thrown away as rubbish. How much have they suffered? Would anyone care for them even if they were dead and fallen into the drain? Nope, nobody cares. Would anyone give them a proper burial? Nope, it would never happen.
I have heard stories how suffering for the dogs to consume poison. All their organs would burned in them. They died from the burning sensation within…
Are we such heartless human beings? Are people too obsessed with their wealth, prestige and fame? Are we so busy that we forgot about the underprivileged, be it humans or animals? What happened to us?
This place is really an EYE-OPENER for me…..
Many times I told myself not to give up volunteering in helping animals.
They need me, they need us, they need CAS. Without CAS, they would suffer even more! We could not do things alone, we need as much support as we could. You could help us to make such miserable places disappear forever from Brunei!
EVERY LITTLE EFFORT COUNTS!
God bless all of the dogs in that area. How I hope to have the power to release all stray dogs from suffering.
Thank you for reading.
Agnes, CAS Volunteer.
