The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Posted: 06 Sep 2011 04:11 PM PDT

SEPT 7 — Yes. I know. For once, I'm not writing about politics or religion. It's a shocker, isn't it?

I've never been one to support putting flora and fauna over people, but the recent case of pets being jailed in a supposed boarding house and just left to die makes me sick to my stomach. And I do believe it will be the first time I'm taking the side of the cats over the two greedy Neanderthals that are (or were) the owners of Petknode.

I won't mince words by saying that I love cats. There are a few of them at my family house in Shah Alam. It's true that some of them can get annoying with all the leftover fur on a glass coffee table right after you polish it. They're bitchy, beautiful, diva creatures, and they know it. I love dogs too. I find my brother's two Pugs adorable creatures. And, as the saying goes, "Us bitches have to stick together."

As such, when you see something like what occurred in Damansara Damai, as per the video on YouTube... it just breaks your heart.

This establishment in Damansara Damai, advertised as Petknode Boarding House, was a hell for 300 cats. These pets were left in their cages, unattended, no water, no food, for nine whole days. And as of now, not all of the cats have been found, nor have their owners come to retrieve them from their fosterers.

Personally, I can't even leave my cats at home hungry for a day without the nagging of my parents and the cats themselves, so I can just imagine how hurt and angry these owners are. I can empathise.

And I can even understand why there are still cats that have yet to be claimed by their owners. Perhaps they don't have Facebook or even access to the Internet. However, here is what I do not understand.

Why are the Petknode owners, who have now posted an apology on Facebook, yet to contact these owners and tell them that they literally messed up? In fact, that would be the first thing they should do.

Give the owners back their pets, and help out in giving back the pets by contacting their owners. While I would like to put it to fear, I somehow think it is partially also due to arrogance and the belief that their actions were justified.

All said, it is perhaps the one time I would actually support an act of crime for the greater good of humanity. In fact, hearing the police say you should break in and rescue your pets makes you wonder why they couldn't have had the same sensibilities during protests.

Now, while the NGOs and representatives of pet lovers are all talking of actions against the owners of the establishment, there are a few ideas floating around. One of them would be to get the two owners and keep them locked up for nine days without food or water. Personally, I think this is quite medieval. In this day and age, where cruelty is somehow equated as an injustice, I doubt this action would be accepted.

And while others are pushing for the maximum sentence of six months in prison and a mere RM200 fine each, I doubt that would deter pet stores and pet boarding houses from ever pulling this crap off again. There is a need, within the use of the law, to ensure that Petknode and any future cases of animal abuse are dealt with in a way that will literally scare anyone who dares pull such a stunt again.

As such, there is a need to pool resources and file a lawsuit for a breach of contract and sue them for punitive damages. After all, these two made quite a large profit notwithstanding how much these two probably collected from their "duit raya" outings while cats under their charge starved to death and lay rotting in their own urine and faeces.

The Malaysian associations of animal welfare and pet lovers alike should push the owners, group them together and present a landmark case in Malaysia to ensure that these two get their just desserts by having to pay for what they did.

After that, one can only pray. And if karma were to bestow any irony whatsoever in our lifetime, they would end up with cellmates who adore our furry little friends.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Now everyone can rage

Posted: 06 Sep 2011 04:06 PM PDT

SEPT 7 — Ah, comments. In the early days it gave me warm, fuzzy feelings to get comments on my blog posts. Now, I try not to read the responses as half the time they make me want to give up on mankind and move to a solitary cave in the Himalayas.

I am curious how some people came to the conclusion they have the right to say whatever they want... on someone else's site. During my stint at Malaysiakini and even now at The Malaysian Insider there will be some reader complaining that censoring comments is blocking freedom of speech.

So it is everyone's right to say whatever they want, slanderous or no, on everyone else's websites? I must have missed the memo on that one. From my understanding, a website belongs to its owners and not its readers. If say, some boor decided to act like a git in my house or place of business, I would have no qualms throwing said person out.

It is mystifying how Malaysians generally seem a placid, inoffensive lot. Yet given both anonymity and the Internet they morph into screaming rabid monkeys with an affinity for curse words and a love of the Caps Lock key.

Dear readers, in case you did not know, there are laws against libel. You can be prosecuted for slandering someone in print. For instance, saying so-and-so has a passing resemblance to a frog is not libel but an observation. Writing an article calling so-and-so a lying son of a goat who sleeps with loose women is libel unless you have a birth certificate proving his animal parentage.

It makes me weep to see the crimes against proper spelling, punctuation and grammar perpetuated constantly in comments. The apostrophe especially suffers, with the odious sin of using "it's" when "its" should be used is becoming so rampant I wonder why we bother with grammar anymore.

Then there are the "I will use the comments thread as a forum" readers. Often they do not bother to read the actual article they're commenting on but instead stand on their respective soapboxes, decrying government policies, rampant corruption and how the iPad 2 sells out too quickly at official retailers.

Really, people. Why not get your own blogs? Why not self-publish your colourful diatribes, full of vitriol and abuses of grammar? But I guess it just isn't as fun as commenting on a nationally read site where you have a higher likelihood of giving someone indigestion.

I guess sites like The Malaysian Insider should probably accept that attracting trolls comes with the territory. We should probably worry if our comments are written with care, thought and proper language. It would mean there wasn't stuff making people angry or that good writers were easy to find and we would soon be out of jobs. I will gladly take angry comments if it means that precious thing — job security.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Rabu, 7 September 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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