Dogs With Expired Licences Can Be Hauled Away Says Council Officer

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Lawyer Ong Yu Shin (third from right) speaking to beach sports operator K Chendeladevan, 53, (second from right) at the sessions court today.GEORGE TOWN: The authorities can catch pet dogs if their licences have expired, a Penang Island City Council (MBPP) officer told the sessions court today.
MBPP veterinary officer Dr Tan Suan Heoh said dog catchers could catch a pet dog with an expired tag if it was in a public area. The annual fee for a dog licence in Penang is RM10.
When asked by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Ong Yu Shin, if this was specified in any part of the council’s 1977 dog bylaws, Tan replied in the negative.
Tan was testifying in a suit brought by a pet owner against the city council following the death of his pet dog during a dog-catching exercise at Batu Ferringhi beach five years ago.
“Butcho was caught because it did not have a valid licence,” she said, referring to the registered mongrel who was shot with a tranquiliser gun by dog catchers in 2018 and later died on the way to the dog pound.
The dog was treated as a stray by the council as it’s licence had not been renewed for three years at the time of the incident, the court was told.
Butcho’s owner, beach sports operator K Chendeladevan, 53, is suing MBPP for negligence in the capture of the 15-year-old dog which had been his companion since it was a puppy. He claimed that his dog had been licensed since 2014 with a visible dog tag.
Batu Ferringhi beach sports operator K Chendeladevan.Tranquilliser dose ‘safe’
Tan, who led the 14-man operation at the Batu Ferringhi beach on Feb 28, 2018, said she readied three darts filled with 150mg of Zoletil, a tranquiliser, a day before the operation.
She said the three tranquiliser darts filled with Zoletil were fired that day. Two of the darts aimed at two strays missed their targets. However, one hit Butcho. She said the dose was safe to be used for Butcho, a female dog weighing between 10kg and 12kg.
Ong then suggested that Tan should have measured the Zoletil dose on site rather than having a one-size-fits-all dosage.
Tan said the 150mg dose per dart was safe and “not fatal”. She said the dog was breathing normally but was in a daze when brought into the van for examination.
MBPP veterinary officer Dr Tan Suan Heoh.She later admitted that the dog was declared dead by one of the catchers when they were approaching the River Road dog pound. She said she was not with Butcho at the time.
“When the dog was brought back, it did not have a dog tag. It died due to natural causes. This would not have happened if the dog was licenced in the first place,” she said. Tan said Butcho’s remains were sent to the veterinary service department for a rabies check and were later disposed of by the department.
Ong asked Tan to reveal MBPP’s dog-catching SOPs at the time of the incident but she declined, saying it was “not necessary”. She said the dog-catching operation was carried out due to a high number of incidents involving strays biting tourists on the beach and to eliminate the threat of rabies.
MBPP’s counsel, Karin Lim, objected to Ong’s line of questioning, saying the plaintiff’s counsel’s questions were out of the scope relating to the licencing of canines. He said the case was about the licencing issue and nothing else.
Ong said he was trying to point out that the city council had illegally taken his client’s property, which he said was under the “trespass to chattels” tort. The tort concerns a party which has willfully interfered with another person’s lawful possession.
Sessions judge Sharmila Abdul Samad, who had initially agreed with Lim, allowed Ong’s questioning after his explanation.
Officer lied to calm situation
Later, Tan admitted that a dog pound officer had deliberately lied to those trying to claim Butcho. She said an officer named “Hakimi” told them it had escaped while on the way to the pound. She said the deception was aimed at calming down an agitated foreign couple and two persons of Indian descent who had come to claim Butcho at the pound.
Ong then said MBPP had committed a fraudulent act when it said that Butcho had escaped, with no formal notification given to the owner. Tan denied the claim, saying a media statement had sufficed.
Ong said city councillor Syerleena Rashid had informed the owner about Butcho’s death.
ButchoDog was sleeping when shot
Former council dog catcher J Sirdiel, 60, said he and a colleague, “Haji Zakaria”, had spotted Butcho sleeping and the latter shot at the dog from a distance.
“As soon as the dart landed on Butcho, the dog ran into the water. I rushed into the water and managed to fish it out. I held it upside-down by holding up its legs. We then gently placed it in a net and put it in the back of our van,” he said.
Sirdiel said Butcho did not have a licence or a collar when he grabbed the dog out of the water.
The court set Sept 15 for parties to finalise their submissions. Fam Han En and Yu Haan Xi also appeared for Chendeladevan, while Nicholas Lim, and Khoo Ching Chiat also represented MBPP. - FMT

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