I refer to the letter Animal hell at Selayang dog pound . I am a member of the Malaysian public and a taxpayer. It is with a lot of disappointment, sadness and anger that I hear of how animals are treated at the Selayang Municipal Council in Kuala Lumpur.

I am writing to the president of the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) to highlight this issue and the fact that this practice is unacceptable in the civilised society that Malaysia claims to be. The following is what I gather from the photographs taken by NGOs of the Selayang dog pound this week.

Dogs captured and kept at the pound are not fed and provided water and food. They are left to die a slow torturous death from exhaustion. It was reported that the caretaker said there is no provision for food for these animals. If true, this simply means the dogs are systematically being left to starve to death.

Dead puppies were simply washed into the drains. The Veterinary Services Department people have not been to the pound for about a month. The MPS employee in charge at the Selayang pound refused to let owners to see their dogs. Apparently, she does not allow anyone to enter the pound and even the SPCA officials that included a vet were not allowed entry into the pound yesterday.

It is reported that this woman has a deep hatred for dogs that she enjoys inflicting pain on them. I am not sure if there is any truth in this allegation but if there are slivers of truth to this, she needs psychiatric help. Civil servants with mental issues should not be allowed to work in a capacity where they can exercise their sadistic streak. She needs to be removed from her position of power.

I look forward to MPS’ response to the issue highlighted. These are serious allegations. I am sure there are a lot of other concerned Malaysians out there who would like to hear from them too. The photos definitely show dogs that are malnourished and dying. I doubt that they were in this condition when they were initially captured, even if they were strays.

For your readers’ information there are a lot of compassionate Malaysians of all races - Muslims, Buddist, Hindus, Christians or atheists alike - who have it in their hearts to feed and look after stray cats and dogs in their neighbourhood even if they are not able to take them into their homes.

Quite a number I know spend their own money and time to spay cats and dogs in their neighbourhoods before releasing them again. So I do not believe these animals came into the Selayang pound as sick as they now look or close to death.

I can only deduce that there is little compassion and a lot of hate for animals in MPS. I still recall the dog-shooting competition organised by the Selayang Municipal Council in 2007. The council was giving cash prizes for the shooting of these creatures. This was cancelled after much protest from the public.

Why do the people in the council and their employees hate dogs that much? In school, we teach our kids that every religion abhors cruelty to animals. If we tell our kids this, why is it that adults cannot find it in their hearts to be compassionate to a lesser being? God made them for a purpose - I doubt that He made animals for us to torture.

If these allegations are true, for the love of God, we want changes to be made. Please cooperate with animal welfare NGOs to put a stop to this cruel practice. There are more humane and more effective approaches to controlling the population of strays and the MPS needs to work with the NGOs to achieve this.

Those responsible for this state of affairs at the Selayang Municipal Council dog pound should be held accountable and fired. Psychopaths should not be allowed to exercise their power in such a way. Even animals can show compassion. Such individuals have no business earning their bread and butter from taxpayers’ money. They are worse than animals.