From PAWS Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)

PAWS’ primary mission is to find permanent homes for the animals in our care at the shelter.

We do not turn away animals so as an open admission shelter with limited resources like finances, space and staff, we would have to euthanise aged, badly injured, sick, dying, aggressive or otherwise unadoptable animals compared to a “no-kill” shelter that filters and strictly takes in only animals that can be adopted.

PAWS has an agreement with Majlis Perbandaran Petaling Jaya (MPPJ) and Majlis Perbandaran Shah Alam (MPSA) to take in the strays that they round up every month.

These thousands of animals will be killed if not for PAWS.

How do we keep on taking in animals every month with a fixed amount of space and resources?

PAWS is committed to keeping animals safe

As PAWS is committed to keeping animals safe and off the streets, we do not have the option of turning their backs on the victims of the animal overpopulation crisis as selective-admission and no-kill shelters do.

Some people are suggesting that the solution to animal overpopulation lies with selective-admission or no-kill animal shelters.

These shelters are deceptive at best.

Then, there are the people who unfairly compare PAWS with animal rescue groups, who are admittedly doing a great job but do not have a large number of animals or the overhead costs that they do.

It’s very easy to sit comfortably at home and point fingers at those who are forced to do the dirty work and clean up after a throwaway society’s casual acquisition and uncontrolled breeding of dogs and cats who end up homeless and unwanted.

The truth is it still hurts even if the best we can offer these animals is a painless release from Malaysians who don’t have enough room for them in their hearts or their homes.

Selective-admission and no-kill shelters

According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), animals at selective-admission and no-kill shelters who have been deemed unadoptable may be “warehoused” in cages for years.

They become withdrawn, severely depressed or aggressive, and this further decreases their chances for adoption.

While it is true that selective-admission and no-kill shelters do not kill animals, this doesn’t mean that the animals are saved.

There simply aren’t enough good homes or enough cages for them all.

Cageless facilities do avoid the cruelty of constant confinement but unintentionally encourage fighting and the spread of disease among the animals.

A last-resort shelter

PETA, like PAWS, takes in difficult cases that other shelters turn down. Unlike selective-admission and no-kill shelters, PETA operates a “shelter of last resort” – a safe place where no animal is ever turned away.

PETA asserts that selective-admission and no-kill shelters reject unadoptable animals in order to keep their “no-kill” status appealing.

Meanwhile here at PAWS, our workers help abused and neglected dogs every day.

What we see on a daily basis is enough to make you lose faith in humanity.

As long as companion animals are still deliberately bred and people aren’t spaying and neutering their dogs and cats, animal shelters like PAWS and organisations like PETA must do society’s dirty work.

No one despises the ugly reality and heartbreak of euthanising animals more than the people who hold the syringe, but euthanasia is often the most compassionate and dignified way for unwanted animals to leave this world.

The alternative to this act of compassion is to cause them terror, pain, and a prolonged death by leaving them to struggle to survive on the streets, often at the hands of animal abusers.

If you want a no-kill shelter, do your part

So please, if you really care about animals, help prevent more of them from being born only to end up chained under the sun and rain and left to waste away in someone’s backyard.

Save them from suffering on the mean streets where many people kick them or shoo them away, or from being tortured at the hands of animal abusers.

If you really want to save animal lives, always have your animals spayed or neutered.

PAWS is a non-profit animal shelter in Petaling Jaya that has been in operation since 1987.

The views expressed are those of PAWS and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.