I have tried to find the name of this shelter in Kepong, Malaysia without success. There is an interesting newspaper report in the Rakyat Post about it. Kepong is near Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.
They report that a former employee of a cat shelter had quit her job and made a formal complaint to the local police about the chronic neglect of the cats at the shelter where she worked together with the stealing of donations for personal use. This seems to be about as bad as it gets in the world of animal shelters.
The brave lady reports cats eating other dead cats. Death was brought about the rampant spread of killer diseases made all the worse by putting healthy cats in overcrowded cages with sick cats. A hell hole in short. Another allegation that the lady makes is that cats were badly underfeed due to a lack of funding (but the money was being stolen). The amount of money available for feeding 200 cats was RM50 a day. That is $15.64 USD as at the date of this post. This is under a dime a day. The cats were starved.
Many customers of the shelter had also complained, apparently. They had complained their cats were sick with feline parvovirus. Read more about the contagious parvovirus.
In trying to defend herself the shelter owner made a counter complaint to the police about the whistle blowing employee claiming she was spreading false information.
What is the point of reporting this sort of story in the West? Well, it puts things into perspective for shelters in America and Europe. It also highlights the lack of sensitivity towards animals in Malaysia. My online research indicates a lack of will to introduce and enforce good animal welfare laws in Malaysia.
This attitude at the top underpins what has allegedly happened at this shelter. Without a genuine improvement in attitudes forced upon people through good animal protection laws which are actively enforced nothing will change and this sort of abuse will continue.
I believe there is a need for cat websites to explore the world of cats in places where there is a more pressing need to improve cat welfare. To constantly focus on the domestic cats living in the West and developed countries is not always the best way to improve cat welfare.
How would anyone know that they aren’t as bad as Malaysia?
No accountability or transparency.
I find those shelters worse than Malaysia. At least Malaysia is upfront about uncaring, as opposed to the deception and pretense of caring, where animals are neglected and killed every day.
I would rather someone be brutally honest than to lie to me.
For me it is obviously wrong for shelters not be fully accountable. They provide a public service and many cats’ lives are at stake. I don’t think they ever get as bad as this Malaysian shelter though.