He was a man with a love affair with dogs – he was taking care of close to 1,000 stray dogs by a riverbank near Taman Sultan Abdul Halim in Tanjung Bendahara here.
It was never easy for Pak Mie, as the neighbours’ prejudice and local council rules meant he struggled to keep his furry friends fed and healthy.
But he fought doggedly, with the help of his fellow dog-lover wife Halijah Idris.
The couple had been taking care of the strays for close to 10 years but in 2013, were almost evicted by the local council as they were technically squatting on government land.
While the couple raised eyebrows among their Muslim neighbours, their compassion towards dogs won the hearts of animal lovers. Husband and wife slept in a beat-up Proton Saga daily, giving up space in their cabin home to sickly dogs.
Pak Mie died in 2015 due to stroke-related complications, leaving Halijah, better known as Mak Intan, and their three children to take care of the canines.
However, Mak Intan, 73, died on Wednesday from cancer.
Even after the couple’s death, there is no resting in peace.
The shelter, with just 260 dogs and 140 cats now, has been left under the supervision of their eldest son, Badirol Hisham Azmi, 54, a retired major with the Royal Ranger Regiment.
Mak Intan’s two favourite dogs, Alora and Teah, have been lingering on her lazy chair and have not eaten well for days since she died.
Badirol is grieving too but he now has other problems. The nightmare of 2013 is back. The Alor Setar City Council (MBAS) wants to evict him and the dogs through a notice served on the shelter on Feb 4.
The council wants the shelter to “cease using the premises to rear strays and to be torn down immediately” the notice states, as it was built without permission.
Speaking to FMT, Badirol said the latest eviction attempt comes as the federal Sewerage Services Department, better known as JPP, plans to lay new sewerage pipes along the site located next to Sungai Kedah.
It is learnt that the land is owned by Indah Water Konsortium.
Badirol said that despite appeals to the city council against the eviction, MBAS was adamant that it would have to “follow the law” and would not reconsider its decision.
After a local TV station aired his plea, MBAS changed its tune and offered a piece of land at Jeragan, about 3km downstream of the same Sungai Kedah river they are currently next to.
He is however reluctant to take up the offer as the council will allow the shelter to operate at the new piece of land for only half a year, with the animals automatically becoming the property of MBAS, leaving Pak Mie’s Shelter to “administer and operate” the shelter.
“What will happen to our dogs and cats after the six months? We do not know and I am worried. The council by-laws dictate that if these animals are not adopted in time, they would be culled right away,” he said.
Badirol said ideally, he would prefer to move the shelter to a piece of land, measuring about half an acre or an acre, without any tenure imposed on them.
He said he was looking for land at the Siamese settlements of Pendang, but the prices were beyond his reach.
The present land they occupy measures close to 11 acres.
The state government had proposed two alternative pieces of land for the shelter previously, but this was fiercely opposed by the majority of the Malays there, he said.
“Our dream is to get a piece of land and I will carry on taking care of our children (dogs and cats). The land does not need to be under our name, it can remain in anyone’s name, we just want a safe space for our animals.
“Mak Intan, in her amanat (last wishes) told me to carry on taking care of the dogs.
“Even during earlier eviction threats, Mak told council officers that those wanting to cull or remove her dogs to ‘bury me with my dogs’ and ‘over my dead body’,” he said.
Badirol said that as for the cost of running the shelter, there are donors who kept sending dog food and other items needed, along with cash from time-to-time. His youngest sister Roslida, 51, is presently taking care of the site.
He said, however, running the shelter has become very difficult, as the main road to the site had been sealed off by the authorities.
“We now have to walk a long distance with our wheelbarrows filled with rice and giblets from the other end. We used to feed our dogs strictly on time but now we are unable to do so. I don’t know why they are doing this. Is it because I am Malay?
“I want to help all animals and whatever sin I have committed, I’m answerable to Allah. Animals, including dogs, are God’s creation after all.”
The shelter’s origins go back to the 1990s, when Pak Mie noticed few strays that were constantly abused near their home in Alor Setar and left hungry by the roadside.
He adopted the two strays and built a kennel for them and fed them. He then saw more dogs in distress and rescued more. The number of rescued animals grew to some 600 dogs and 200 cats in early 2012.
He believed that dogs were “a unique creation of God” although there are many who say differently.
Pak Mie, a contractor, then found the present-day site and spent over RM100,000 to reclaim a portion of the river reserve land on Sungai Kedah to be turned into an 11-cabin animal shelter in 2013.
Since then, there have been repeated attempts by the council to remove his shelter, but fortunately, it hasn’t happened yet. But the end may be near, unless something is done.