emm,my worry is that,animal shelter might not able to keep many of the stray if we did managed to get some of the dogs out from the island. Most of the dogs that were sent to the shelter will end up euthanize if nobody adopt them.

SPCA said they are trying to neuter and spray the stray and pets in the island,while trying to educate the residents on proper way of taking care of animals. Maybe we can help them out on that?

hi kaven...

yes, we are doing whatever we can to save the dogs... reduce populations, neuter them... any possible ways to help...i have arrangements with SPCA n PAWS.. they willingly to take in whatever i could get... there might be more soon.. as some LYN members had pm-ed me to offer other animal shelter as well.

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Added on May 9, 2009, 10:18 pmi still yet to receive any reply from any volunteers who wishes to join me tommorow.... please do confirm asap....

i will be there whether any volunteers coming or not... just tht its better if we can go in a group....

This post has been edited by adrianck: May 9 2009, 10:50 PM

Me and my brother can confirm for next weekend but cannot make it in time for tomorrow as we will be in Muar for family matter.

Do keep us updated on the situation.

ok, there are some changes for tomoro schedule....

12pm- arrive at P. Ketam Jetty
1pm- Arrive at Pulau Ketam, do survey, talk to village headman.
2pm- lunch
3pm- continue survey at island
4pm- gather n discuss of next contingency plan for next weekend
6pm- arrive at klang n dismiss

if there is any volunteer wanna come last minute... pls do call me at 012-2726777 1st...

so far, i have 2 volunteers will be with me tomoro.... so more volunteers will be welcome, as doing survey, talking to the locals there, would not be an easy task, nevertheless, if there is none, i will do my best and cover the place as much as i could...

tq...

This post has been edited by adrianck: May 12 2009, 12:36 PM

I wish to volunteer for the mission next week. Will pm you my contact details

Mycen.com hasn't contacted me on info on rescue missions either since I first contacted them 2 days ago. Thank you for this effort

Btw, if u manage to get some dogs during the 1st visit, where are u going to place them? Have u contacted FFF if they might have some space for the dogs? I'm from penang. I wish i can join the mission. But since there's already some volunteers to catch the dogs, maybe i can use my transport fee to get some dog food and donate it to FFF.

Please keep us update. Get us some photos of the site when u visit the area. Gud luck to u guys *hugs*

This post has been edited by nicoty_yne: May 10 2009, 03:11 AM

Adrian is probably playing chess with zhou gong, so I'm gonna answer some of the questions:

We're not going to catch any dogs on our first visit, which is later at 12pm. Strictly a recon trip - surveying the place, asking permissions from relevant parties, checking out the price of boat rental so we can get to pulau tengah as well.

Adrian contacted PAWS and SPCA, which will be the receiving ends should we get any dogs.

The actual dog saving day will fall on next weekend. By that time, we aim to have 5 or more cages, stockpile of dog food, and a group of people to help us with the laboring.

We haven't finalize on how to deliver the dogs yet, but if everything fails, we'll just send them over by our cars.

I'll be taking lots of photos, of all our activities, with the aim of producing a scrapbook of some sort.

I'll be bringing along two bags of dog food next week.

If SPCA is the receiving end of any rescued dogs from Pulau Ketam, it's almost sending them to a certain death. It pains me to know that after going through the effort to save them, we're sending them to another dead end way (pun intended). I understand that Sabrina's farm can't take in so many dogs but if the Pulau Ketam dogs will be send to PAWS or SPCA, I will donate the kibbles to Sabrina instead. She needs it more for the Death Island dogs than those at Pulau Ketam now.

this cant be sure as we do not know the amount of strays around pulau ketam now... thats y the survey is important.... we will not know how many dogs are still there in pulau ketam ....tv smith n sabrina is concentrating at pulau tengah and if they require our help, hen we see what we can do... probably after pulau ketam, we may rent a boat and go to pulau tengah as well....

this all i cant confirm until when i survey pulau ketam first. i dont wanna rush into anything b4 i have full survey, full info and so on....

that is y i kept mentioning tht the survey is an important element....

btw, my lastest update we have 5 volunteers include me for this trip.... so should be adequate for today mission...

LYN'ers, please pray for us and hope this mission will be a successful ones.

Have an eventful trip. Will checking up on LYN later this evening.

how bout save the dogs at penang here...

here at permatang pauh,u can see many dogs being tied at one place

for even 10years they din let them go even for a while...sad

all the dogs came here as a beautifull lovely dog...

but go as "no hair" dog...poor

all the time,when i see the little cute dog being tied infront of the store i really wan to save them...

but i cant i juz see them being weaker and poorer as every days go...

SPCA DOG RESCUE TEAM will b CAMPING in d ISLAND 2 TRAP & RESCUE d DOGS STARTING TONITE.

SPCA PAYS d INDONESIAN WORKER from floating fish farm nearby to FEED SEVEN (7) BAG DOG FOOD DAILY to d DOGS in d ISLAND of DEATH .

This post has been edited by brownie: May 10 2009, 12:02 PM

Just want to let you guys know that once you wish to undertake the rescue at the other island where the dogs were abondened, please please please take precaution with regrds to the strays and the island itself.
1) Theyre strays, they may have rabies, fleas, make sure you have proper first aid at hand.
2) Do your research and also ask around the fishermen and locals on pulau ketam of the dangerous species of animals or plants that they have seen or reside in these mangrove islands, ie: sea snakes, poisonous plants, sea alligators.
3) Remember rule 1 and 2

I thinking the same way as yours. I wish we can help Sabrina more than sending the dogs to SPCA n PAWS coz i have a bad experience sending a dog i rescued to SPCA here 3 years ago. So i end up keeping the dog my self (took the trouble. I'm a malay and live in the apartment so u know what i mean)

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Added on May 10, 2009, 6:27 pmAnd u didnt contact the authority like SPCA??Maybe u have more luck than mine in dealing with them (SPCA)

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Added on May 10, 2009, 6:32 pmWed, 06/05/09:
REAL DANGERS
Our volunteer Communications Officer for the rescue mission, Zalina, brought up the issue of cannibalism and whether the dog-eating-dogs marooned on the island can be rehabilitated. Mark Jones, the Animal Welfare Director of Animals Asia Foundation chimed in:

Wild dogs learn to hunt as packs. Some feral dogs do revert to this kind of behavior, and I've seen packs of domestic dogs in Thailand that live perfectly well with people but will attack and kill a cat or an outsider dog should they have a mind to.

I think it's probably unlikely the dogs will "hunt" each other for food, although those that die or become very sick will inevitably become potential meals for those which remain. If these dogs have previous experience of people, it's probably unlikely they will actively attack anyone as a pack, although they will be scared and desperate and will no doubt defend themselves if they are cornered, so whoever is going onto the island to try and help will need to be very careful.

Disease is a real issue, particularly since the dogs were presumably randomly picked up and transferred to the island, because they will be weak and immune suppressed, and because they will have had close contact with each other and with the carcases of those which have died.

There will be a good chance that distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis or parvovirus may be circulating among them. Is there any recent history of rabies in this area? Have those people who are planning to be closely involved received rabies vaccinations? It will be worth checking with the local clinic / hospital that they have the means to provide prophylactic rabies treatment should anyone involved get bitten.

I'll check with the local clinic when we re-visit the islands today.

Updates by TV Smith

This post has been edited by nicoty_yne: May 10 2009, 06:32 PM

You could do your part by contacting Penang SPCA. There will always be abandoned/injured stray dogs and cats. What we can do is try to contact the relavant parties and inform them of what you have seen. I've made a number of calls to SPCA when I saw dogs being ill-treat by their owners - we can't expect the SPCA be making rounds all over the place in search of animals in need - WE must do our part to help them help/save these animals.

Yeah, we understand the risks that we are facing. I know that we might actually be hindering Sabrina and team in doing their job if we were to follow them to the islands, so that is why I don't mind if we have to stay ashore to help with whatever we're assigned. My brother lives in Bkt Beruntung, which is very near Rawang, so if Sabrina needs a hand at her farm we can go over there to help out. I've previously said that I will only give the kibbles to Sabrina's farm, not the SPCA.

I've sent a rescued dog to SPCA last time (before I knew there was a Furry Friends Farm) and I was forced by them to sign a Euthanasia form because they said there was 'no more space' for the dog. I would've kept the rescued dogsmyself but it were aggresive towards my own 3 dogs and it pains me till this day to sign that form. Apart from not getting along with my dogs, that stray was extremely friendly towards people. I admit I didn't know anyone that could've fostered it for a period of time. The guilt is like a thorn stuck in my side ever since then.

The scouting trip was somewhat successful as we managed to clear some doubts. We also found new problems which we'll try to tackle before the mission day.

Posting with friend's PDA will write about what happened + photos when I got home later.

thanks A-D-Photographer.....

i will post my findings later tonite and A-D will help me post wats our finding today as well....

Thanks for the hard work guys. Really appreciate it.

Not trying to blogwhore, but tired to repeat everything so head to my blog and read my version of report for today's trip, until we have Adrian's summary.

For those who just want to quick peek at the strays, photos are in spoiler.

Poor dogs

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Added on May 10, 2009, 10:26 pmIf not mistaken, i read somewhere else that the villagers trapped the dogs (they dont chased and catched the dogs) but dunno how they done it.

Did u guy ask them?

This post has been edited by nicoty_yne: May 10 2009, 10:26 PM