Terengganu agriculture, food industry, plantation, commodity and rural development committee chairman Azman Ibrahim said his office recently received an application for compensation over the deaths of 20 rabbits, valued at more than RM60,000.

He told Bernama that the Terengganu agricultural disaster fund was set up to help farmers, livestock breeders and fishermen to recover from disasters as this was the source of their livelihood.

“We only get RM1 million a year to support agriculture, livestock and fisheries,” he said.

Azman said, as such, expensive pets were not covered by the scheme. He suggested that owners buy insurance to protect them.

“Examples of these expensive pets are imported rabbits worth more than RM3,000 each, bantam breed chicken (ayam serama) or ornamental fish worth thousands of ringgit each.”

Azman, who is the Jabi assemblyman, said to date, 679 farmers, livestock breeders and fishermen affected by various disasters had received RM588,000 in assistance from the fund.