February 2013 album (the pics below)
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These pics were taken at Pak Mie's hell by the head of an NGO between 13-16 February 2013. I don't know all the subjects in the pictures, but will comment on ones that I know.
The dogs' food is white rice and chicken parts. This is all chicken fat with the occasional heart. These are all free as they are worthless discards. There is no meat, not even a chicken head (which costs 10c).
Click link below for more pics
This is the pot used to cook the rice. They only cook once a day. All the dogs and some older puppies share this pot of rice. As the number of animals increase, each one gets a smaller and smaller share.
Fendy (Pak Mie's son), boils the chicken fat. The leftover water is used to cook the rice.
Mimi is paralysed from the waist down.
A kind soul took pity and her and sent her to the vet and paid for her to be treated and to stay there for two weeks.
Below is a comment by another volunteer:
Another puppy with a bedsore.
Mangy and healthy dogs all living together.
This may be a newcomer. Puppy sitting in a water bowl to cool himself off. Man Intan would usually remove the water bowls from the puppies because she said their sitting in the water would cause them to catch a cold. So they have no water to drink until she comes around again, whenever that might be.
Many animals have no water bowls at all. There are never enough water bowls, but there are ALWAYS enough chains for new dogs, no matter how many come in. I guess water is just not high on the list. Why buy them their own bowls when they can share? You one day, me one day, save more money.
Healthy and mangy all mixed together.
Not separated or quarantined. Mange mites and eggs transferred to soil. It's a neverending cycle. The only one who benefits from this is the vet. Poop in this enclosure never swept up.
Stuffing dogs into every available nook and cranny. Many people say it is better than living on the street because now the animals have a roof over their heads.
I think this is a newcomer.
Newcomer. Still as painfully thin 6 weeks later. Behind the glass door is a whole bunch of puppies.
Lots and lots of puppies. Some dumped, some bred. They come in all shiny and new, then get mange in a matter of weeks.
How many animals are there per cage? Never enough bowls, dog eating off a newspaper. Even if there is a bowl (plastic container for water), it has no water.
Behind the zinc sheet are two budgies, three ducks and two monkeys in a very small birdcage. I have never seen the monkeys with water. The ducks' water is always white. Don't know what they eat. There are also two sugar gliders and a ferret. Pak Mie told me someone brought in a rare/endangered orange-coloured monkey (siamang?) the other day. I asked him why he didn't give it to the Wildlife Department. He said they wouldn't know how to take care of it. Under his expert care, it died within three days.
Chicken, mangy rabbits, and to the right, a squirrel and green parrot. They are all fed cat kibble.
To the left is the glass door, the gate to hell (the cat room). Many look through it but few ever enter. Until you enter, you will never know the truth.
Newcomer dog, no water or food bowl as usual, but there are always enough new chains. Once I found him with a water bowl but it was completely dry. I filled it up and he drank 3 bowls in one go. The animals have to take turns sharing water bowls. At this time, Pak Mie already had 5 figures in donations, if not close to or more than 6 figures already. Between my friends and I, we had given him more than RM1k. No money for bowls? Please lah. (Rice and kibble were already all donated, no need to buy food.) So I spent more of my own money to buy 50 bowls for the animals. The following week, it was not enough again. Every week, I would spend about RM50 buying food and things for the animals - absolutely basic necessities - because Pak Mie would never spend any of the money we gave him. Cages, medicine, everything was donated because people saw that these items were lacking.
Long-timers. Terrible mange but still let loose.
Poop never removed.
I think this was a newcomer.
Parvo patty. All the flies have buzzed off except one on the left. Dried faeces all around, never disposed of. When it rains, it turns into shit soup and gets washed over the soil of the whole enclosure. When animals die, it is "Kehendak Allah" (God's will).
The dogs fight to get the chicken fat first, then they will slowly eat the rice. They don't like rice, but they eat it anyway because they are so hungry. The portions are simply not enough. They are always hungry. All are far below their ideal weight.
After cleaning, with fresh newspaper. Bowl rim still encrusted with faeces. Why are there faeces on the bowls? That's the only place left to shit, especially when there are 3 cats per cage. Bowls are never washed.
Look at the cage floor.
Here is the cat room, hell on earth. The first thing you notice when you enter this room is that ammonia envelops you from 360 degrees and permeates into your hair and every fibre of your clothes, shoes, everything. The walls are covered with plastic or zinc sheets, reducing ventilation. They said the cats would get sick easily from a draught or rain.
Rabbits in cage at bottom right. When I squat down to feed the rabbits, my nose is level with the poop tray of the cage above. Phew! The smell is not just unpleasant, you get used to unpleasant real quick in here. The ammonia just plain burns your lungs. I started coughing non-stop the day I started volunteering here until one month after the last day I came in here. The first day, I inhaled a lot of faeces dust, but after that I wore a mask, and still I kept coughing. Must be the ammonia, I guess. I don't know how these cats, with their sensitive noses, can sit there with their noses right in front of a poop patty. Maybe their noses and lungs have been damaged beyond repair.
Look at the colour of the water. Food remnants are putrefying in there. This is typical.
These cats don't even have a water bowl. It is not behind the cats. See how in the other cages the water bowl is up front on the right. It is always in front because Mak Intan would just stick the spout of a watering can through the bars to refill it. Saves time opening doors. The bowls are never washed. So if they have dirty water in there, later it would just be topped up with not-as-dirty water. Well, I guess it's still better than nothing like for these guys. This is the condition of the cat cages before cleaning. They pee and poo on the paper, then rip up the paper trying to bury the poop, then there is just faeces all over and no place left to sit. In cages with three cats, they usually poop in the food and water bowls simply because there is no other place. These kittens haven't learned yet.
Not enough cages to keep so many sick animals, so have to leave them to roam freely with the healthy. At one point, they put all the healthy ones in cages and the sick ones outside because the sick outnumbered the healthy.
This kitten escaped from his cage and was mauled to death by the dogs. I got to him too late. Even so, had I not got to him then, there would soon only be his head left. His tail had been eaten. Oh well, at least the dogs got some protein!
I have also wondered about how with so much food scraps on the ground (never swept up of course) and in the cage trays, and bags and bags of rice piled up to the ceiling, there were never any rats (noted by the absence of rat droppings). Now I know. They are all eaten, just like the cats.
