Charity | Of Pak Mie and Mak Intan: The Malay Dog Savior.

When it comes to animal shelters, SPCA is always the one that majority of the people would be able to bring up. Few years ago, I've discovered more shelters in Malaysia that needs the money and supplies more than SPCAs since they already have people donating regularly (or at least the amount is enough for the whole shelter alone.)

Since this is my first blog article about this, I would like to introduce the brave Malay couple who accepts dogs into their arms for shelter and love.

Note this: 
1: I am very aware of the teaching of Muslim does not include killing/abusing/terminating the species of canine as many Muslims had cleared this misunderstanding of many people who blamed the teaching.
2: I am also aware that there are fellow Muslims out there who are very kind and rational when it comes to this "sensitive" topic.
3: There are also a type of canine/hound which is featured here in Heshmael's Salukis called Saluki which Muslims are allowed to adopt.
4: Racism and criticism is highly intolerable so please do ignore this if you don't find it comfortable. Kindly keep the mean words to yourself.

Pak Mie and Mak Intan were well-known for some time in the country and they were respected by many (and despised by the radical minded ones,) as well as featured on newspapers. We were told about how much Pak Mie wanted to save the animals with his own hands, maybe also with some donations given, and also with Mak Intan by his side. At one point, we heard that he wasn't okay with adopters in his shelter, which I am not sure why, but he was happy to do it by himself. Well, after some time I've noticed that there are helpers in the shelter so I guess that made me relief a bit.

Now recently The Malaysian Insider had featured an article about their shelter, written by Looi on 28 June 2015, about their shelter in Alor Star which is still operating even though we lost one of the precious gem of the nation to Death himself.

According to Looi: 

The couple has battled the odds together, standing up to condemnation, criticism and even slander for their kindness towards dogs, which are considered unclean by Muslims.

They had been known to sleep in their battered Proton Saga at their riverside shelter in Tanjung Bendahara so they could be close to the animals.

The couple nearly lost the shelter two years ago when the local council threatened to evict them from the plot belonging to Indah Water Konsortium.

The fear of losing the shelter is always on Mak Intan’s mind, even though they were still there in Tanjung Bendahara and despite having registered as a non-governmental organisation (NGO) early this year.

 So you can see how much hardship they are still encountering. There are actually more to that, such as fear of eviction as the people from Land Office "were not here to help… just to check up on us and maybe find our faults, telling us we have to do this and that. But we cannot do anything with the shelter because the land is not ours."

Now that Pak Mie is gone, Mak Intan also felt alone and I guess you could also say she felt more burdened than before as there is no one to share with since the youngsters do not think alike.

Of course I would suggest a donation to her, which is Halijah Idris with an account in Public Bank (Account number 68368860-36)


But that's not the only case I would be talking about.
According to 'Lee', the shelter is not well organized.

I'm really not sure about why there are carcasses around and animals not being fed when the news are all about how well the animals in the shelter are. This is really odd. I've also contacted Lee for some photos and here they are:

Seeing these photos for the first time gave me a terrible disappointment. I was hoping that it wouldn't be so bad but this is saddening. If they could not guarantee the well-being of each and every one of the animals, why did they not invite more volunteers? Most of the articles are only about how great and kind they are but they are missing the point: this shelter is in the need for more help than they think they could handle.

Don't get me wrong, I want the best for them but 'how about the animals'? I know MIAR can handle theirs even though they are encountering the same difficulties but Puspa Rani did a really, really great job. So if Puspa Rani can, why can't they?

All this time, I was given the wrong hope. I thought they were living healthily but I was wrong, very wrong indeed. But for my current situation, just like any other kids with strict parents and limited budget, I'm not allowed to drive that far just to give a hand to the shelters or even have enough to donate them. I'm still struggling every month with little allowance to pay that horribly high-price of petrol and food. I wish the economy wouldn't be so bad but look at the news these days. They are all about disappearance of money or increase in prices. 

....

I know there are people who are well off in this country. Just, instead of laying back and play games with your consoles, maybe, just maybe, you could look into situations like this and make a difference. It changes not only us human's (pathetic little) lives but also the animals' lives and their world.

After all, we humans are the ones who made this mess.

So, if you doubted me about the teachings of Muslim (just because I'm not one), please do enjoy this little screenshot as a part of the proves that I've seen from that article.

(click to enlarge)

also, if you insisted to kill these innocent little animals: 

(click to enlarge)