Animal rights groups, who have been trying to halt the culling of strays in Penang, said they are willing to work with the state government to make decisions based on facts and not emotions.

The remark comes after Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng asked animal lovers and NGOs to work with the state “instead of complaining”, and help the authorities vaccinate dogs if Putrajaya approves the 40,000 doses of vaccines to be brought in by World Veterinary Services (WVS).

Stop The Killing, Start Vaccinating representative Lim Li Lian ( photo ) thanked the authorities for bringing in the WVS, a global animal welfare group, to Penang for the benefit of public health and safety.

Lim said the NGOs in Penang have spayed and neutered over 4,000 strays over the space of two years.

“We used our own time, effort and money and will continue to do so. Our shelters have rehomed hundreds, perhaps thousands of dogs over the years and we have kept many thousands of stray dogs off the streets, and will continue to do so,” she told Malaysiakini .

So far, 1,000 over dogs have been culled and Guan Eng shows no signs of rescinding his decision although animal rights groups have been appealing against the decision, urging that dogs be vaccinated instead of being culled.

Lim said she understood that Guan Eng had to make a quick decision based on fear that rabies would spread further, when they were two dog bite victims in Penang, after there were cases of rabies in Perlis and Kedah.

However, now there are clearly presented scientific facts that the spread of rabies is not dependent on population density of dogs, but on contact rate instead, she added.

“The facts clearly state that mass killing does not have any effect on spread of rabies."

Emergency rabies vaccine bank

Lim said the NGOs would like to work with the authorities and give them their full support in making decisions based on facts and not emotion, as mentioned by Guan Eng ( photo ).

She added that Malaysia is a member of The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) which carries an emergency rabies vaccine bank.

Member countries may access these vaccines for a cost as low as US$0.25 and vaccines can be delivered in one to two weeks.

“It should be noted that the first rabies case was in July. We hope that this fact is taken into consideration before the authorities declare that we do not have enough vaccines,” Lim said.

Since Guan Eng declared that strays would be culled to spread rabies in Penang, various animal groups have criticised the decision, and held several protests to demand that the killing of dogs be stopped immediately.

The chief minister has also been accused of being a dog meat eater , which he has vehemently denied, saying he was a “dog lover” but was more responsible for human lives.