IPOH: Animal lovers are seeing red after eight dogs were believed to have been poisoned near a row of shoplots in Lahat Mines, near here.

       The incident happened just months after 17 strays were found dead at the same location.

       Gurdip Singh, 57, said for almost three years he, together with a few others, had been feeding over 40 strays there.

       “When I went to feed the dogs on Monday, a man told me that eight dogs were found dead by the roadside last Saturday.

       “A friend who had seen the dead dogs sent me photos, and the Perak Veterinary Services Department officers went to take samples on the day of the incident.

       “It is so sad to see that some of them had been bleeding, and thus, I decided to lodge a police report at the Menglembu station on Monday,” he said when contacted yesterday.

       He provided a copy of his police report as well.

       Gurdip suspected it to be the work of two men who had told him to stop feeding the dogs several days back.

       He said that in May last year, at the same site, 17 strays had been found dead, but at that time he thought the dogs had eaten something bad.

       “Now, I am suspecting that those dogs were poisoned too,” he added.

       As for the eight dogs, Gurdip said the department had told him that the chemistry report on the samples would take between two and three months to complete.

       He is hoping for justice for the dogs and action to be taken against those responsible for their deaths.

       “I hope the police will catch the perpetrators soon as some of the occupied shops have CCTVs installed.

       “I am also hoping that the department will expedite the report because in three months, the culprits would have got away,” he said.

       The Ipoh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) president Ricky Soong said some 6,000 strays had been neutered.

       “That is the only way to control the population, and both the ISPCA and Ipoh City Council (MBI) have been working to achieve that.

       “Everyone including the authorities, business groups, NGOs and animal lovers must find a solution to this. Poisoning and killing these animals is not the solution,” he said when contacted.

       Soong said all the dogs rounded up by the MBI and Batu Gajah district council were left at the Papan landfill, which is close to Lahat.

       “So the dogs roamed everywhere looking for food, and some people who were unhappy with their presence probably resorted to poisoning them,” he added.

       The department’s director-general Datuk Dr Norlizan Mohd Noor said he had yet to get a report on the matter but would check on it.