We refer to newspaper reports recently about an elderly and partly blind female Rottweiler which was shot and injured with a bow and arrows by a resident in Selangor outside the front gate of his house.
We understand that the police have completed their investigations of the incident and have handed over the matter to the Attorney-General’s Department.
As a national society which promotes health and healing to disabled and elderly Malaysians through therapy from pets - and namely dogs like Rottweilers and others - Petpositive is shocked and outraged that such cruelty can occur in this day and age.
And it seems to us that if such a monstrosity can be displayed in front of us in such a “casual manner” with no punishment to the perpetrator as a deterrent, then something is very wrong with our community and system to allow someone to get away with it.
This will only send a loud and clear message to future animal abusers that it is all right to hurt a living being in Malaysia as long as one has a good excuse. (The perpetrator claimed that the stray dog was a threat to his children and family.)
As such, we urge the AG’s good offices to do everything they can in their power to charge the man over his cruelty on the poor dog.
Issues of animal cruelty must be taken very seriously as expert studies, particularly in the West, have shown a disturbing link with other forms of crime. These include domestic violence to harm against the public, property crimes and drugs of disorderly conduct offences.
In even more extreme cases, it has been discovered that serial killers often start their trail of terror with experimenting on animals. Some of such infamous killers in history are/were Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz.
Of those arrested for animal crimes, 65 percent had been arrested for battery against another person. Of 36 convicted multiple murderers questioned in one study, 46 percent admitted committing acts of animal torture as adolescents.
Books such as ‘Guilty By Reason of Insanity’ and ‘Base Instinct: What Makes Killers Kill’ by expert psychiatrist Dr Dorothy Otnow Lewis and neurologist Dr Jonathan Pincus chronicle a disturbing link between animal abuse/torture and killers. from their research conducted on 14 death row inmates.
Dogs are not throwaway beings
Dogs are capable of feeling pain, fear, love and of being loyal. Dogs have been used as service dogs, therapy animals, K9 Units with the police and even in the military to help protect soldiers by sniffing out IEDs and bombs. They are not throwaway beings.
Animal abuse exists everywhere. It is not unique to Malaysian society.
For instance, there is a pending investigation in Ohio, USA of a possible psychopath who has been using companion animals (cats and dogs) as target practice, too.
The difference is that there is also a reward offered for information leading to an arrest. The authorities are not keeping silent about it or seeing it as just a dog or a cat. They know what is at stake; human lives.
That acts of animal cruelty are linked to serious crimes does not indicate that every act of animal cruelty is committed by a disturbed individual. However, not doing anything about animal cruelty is a harbinger of more bad things to come.
This letter was written on behalf of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (Petpositive).
