I am writing in reference to the Majalah Tiga programme aired last Saturday night regarding the success of the Kelana Seafood Centre in Petaling Jaya due to the freshness and taste of its fare. Though initially happy for the restaurant, my joy was shortlived as the programme revealed more details.

Certain ways of preparing some of the more sought-after dishes are certainly disgusting and cruel and should be discontinued. Correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that the cruel way in which the fish are prepared is what makes the place so popular and the food so tasty.

To digress, remember how shark's fin soup is prepared? The sharks are caught, the fins ripped off and the sharks are thrown back to the sea to drown (they need to swim in order to breathe).

How does this seafood restaurant make its seafood so irresistible? How does it ensure that its food is freshly prepared? The fish is scaled and cut up while alive. How's that for fresh? How would we like to be cut up and skinned alive? Or undergo major surgery without anaesthesia?

Cruelty is a sin. That is why we have to ensure that any animal we kill for food does not go through prolonged suffering. I am very sure all of us who have been eating at that seafood centre are not aware of what goes on behind the scenes before the plate reaches your table.

But now that we know, what are we going to do about it? Are we going to just express disgust outwardly but continue patronising such places or are we going to start boycotting these places. In fact, being an Islamic country, the government should do its own investigations on such acts of cruelty.

The Kelana Seafood Centre is not the only place that practises this way of cooking seafood. Many other restaurants have aquariums in which many fish are kept to optimise the limited space, for patrons to select from a variety of fish which are later prepared in more or less the same manner.

I find this practice on the whole, deplorable. I wish to see Majalah Tiga actually showing up the restaurants that practise this cruelty and make people aware of such practices. Hopefully this will make us all the more a caring society, both to animals and people.