I didn’t want to post this initially because it was a personal matter between two people, but since absolute strangers who know nothing about anything have been posting lies about me all over the place, I will tell the truth, however unpalatable.
This is a message I wrote to a friend earlier. I don’t want to tell the whole story again, so I’m just cutting and pasting here.
March 16, 2013
I am very sakit hati today. I don’t want to go to the shelter anymore. I am done with it. It is all bullshit. Mak Intan yelled at me today. They have this dog tied up at the back who has very bad mange. There’s a healthy one tied up right next to it - a pitbull named Moon. I’m kinda fond of that dog and even tried to find someone to foster him because I didn’t want him to catch mange from his neighbour and die. Anyway, before that had a chance to happen, today they added another dog there - a golden retriever mix puppy whose coat was still in very good condition. He had just come in, that’s why he’s still healthy.
Pak Mie and Mak Intan both happened to be there and I took the opportunity to talk to them. Whenever I ask them any “hard” questions, Pak Mie would say go and ask Mak Intan, and Mak Intan would say go and ask Pak Mie. So now that both of them were together, here is a good opportunity.
I said, “Why don’t you separate the dogs? Or else it would infect the others.” She exploded at me. I had actually asked her about this a few times before. She had already yelled at me a few times before, but this I totally did not foresee.
The first time I asked her about separating the animals was because a few extremely mangy dogs were left loose to run from one end of the shelter to the other (still are) and go around infecting all the others. So I asked her about separating the animals, she said, “Tak dak tempat dah nak tambat.” And, “Yang ni tak boleh tambat, kalau tambat, dia tak nak makan.”
[“There is no more place to tie them up.” “This one, if it is tied up, it will not eat.”]
The next time, I saw that a beautiful yellow labrador had developed pretty bad mange. When I first saw him, he was about the only non-mangy dog that I saw there, that’s why I remember him. He slept under our feet all the hours that we had a meeting at the table, while I kept admiring his non-mangy coat. Three weeks later, he had lost half his fur and the bald areas had erupted in weeping and bleeding sores. I was so mad. It was such a waste because he was so beautiful before. And it was also a waste of donors’ money because now they would have to treat so many more animals instead of treating just one. It’s just common sense, isn’t it? He was not tied up and went around infecting all the other dogs. So I asked Mak Intan again about separating the sick from the healthy. She angrily replied, “Jangan banyak cakap lah!!!”
[“Just shut up!!!”]
I had also asked her why she gave the rabbits, chicken and bird cat food. Sometimes it was dog food, whatever was closest at hand. I thought the animals didn’t have their own food, so the next weekend, I bought some for them. Grass pellets for the rabbits (both medium-grade and the expensive high-grade one), and rice and millet seeds for the chicken and parrot. Turned out they did have rabbit food after all, an entire 20-litre paint bucket full of it, but she just couldn’t be bothered to go and get it. So nevermind, I gave the animals the food I bought. I left the bags of food on the table because I didn’t know where they kept the food and they had both left for the day.
The next weekend, cat food again! She said she couldn’t find the food that I had given them because Pak Mie had stuffed it somewhere. She couldn’t find the one that she had either. Not happy because that stuff cost me money and they just chucked it somewhere like it was worth nothing. Think I’m so rich or what??
Then the following weekend (yesterday), still feeding them cat kibble, surprise surprise. The chicken couldn’t even wrap his mouth around one piece, ok! I asked her if she had found the rabbit food (either the one I bought or the one they already had) because I wanted to feed the rabbits. Her face turned black. She shouted angrily, “The rabbits don’t want to eat rabbit food! They only want cat food! They kick all the rabbit food to the floor!! See? See? Look here!!!” Well, I didn’t see them kicking anything (they didn’t even have room to turn around), maybe they pushed some out in their rush to stick all their three faces into the bowl at once? At any rate, why did she yell at me? Is it my fault that they do that? I just wanted to know where to take the food from. Why would she need to get angry at that? (I realised later that it was because I had questioned her feeding them cat kibble.) Anyway, I figured there’s no hope of finding the lost food and went to buy more for them today. That day’s money was just completely wasted and the animals didn’t even get to eat one bite. So that was a few times already that she had snapped at me.
So today, since both of them were together, I took the opportunity to ask them once again about separating the mangy animals from the still-healthy ones. [Pic above shows mangy dog on left (not actual photo of him), the golden retriever pup and pitbull all tied together.]
I asked them (more towards Pak Mie because supposedly he has the last word on everything), “Why don’t you separate the dogs? Or else these two healthy ones will get infected.” Pak Mie opened his mouth to answer but before he could do so, Mak Intan exploded: “Mana saya nak tambat depa??? Sini semua dah penuh, kamu cakap lah nak tambat kat mana?? Kalau kamu pandai sangat, kamu sendiri buat lah!!”
[“Where am I to tie them? It is all full here, you tell me where I should tie them?? If you are so clever, you do it yourself!!”]
I was thinking, uh... is it my problem that you keep taking on more and more even though you know that you already don’t have enough space?? Still, I persevered, still trying to stay positive and offer solutions. If there was no space, perhaps an alternative would be to cure the sick one (she always says no time, no time), so I asked, “Yang ni dah bagi ubat kah?” She said, “Bagi ubat pun takkan satu hari nak lega? Satu jam nak lega?” I said, “Tak lah, saya cuma kesian kat yang ni. Nanti dia pun kena. Saya sayang kat dia.” She said, “Kalau sayang, pi lah bela anjing sendiri, jangan sayang anjing orang lain!! Kita dok sini 24 jam sehari, kamu mai berapa jam saja sudah nak kaypoh?? Kalau nak tolong, tolong, jangan kaypoh!!!!”
[I asked, “Have you given medicine to this one?” She said, “So you expect them to get well in one day? One hour??” I said, “No lah, I just feel sorry for this one. I’m afraid he would get infected too. I kinda love him.” She said, “If you love dogs, go and keep your own, don’t come and love other people’s dogs! We are here 24 hours a day, you have been here how many hours and you already want to be a busybody?? If you want to help, help, don’t be a busybody!!!!”]
Fuhh....
So it is as I thought. These are all their PETS!!! What the hell am I doing there?? This is no shelter. They were never adopting out their pet hoard. Who were we kidding??? These are their personal pets, and you better damn well don’t tell them how to take care of their pets, even though you’re the one paying for it!
I went to help the animals, not the people. All that we have done did not help the animals. Maybe cleaning the cages, yes, for a few days, but bathing the animals [in that weekend’s gotong-royong]? What’s the point if you put them all back together, healthy with sick? I met another volunteer and she told me that many of those who came on the first day said that they would not come again. Because everyone saw that this work was pointless. We are helping them to take care of their pets! If these are their pets, they can jolly well take care of them themselves!! All this giving them money is for what? Indulging their hobby!! If they can keep 5,000 animals in good condition, I have no problem with that. But to keep the animals like this, making them sick from neglect? Sitting in their own excrement, chained up for the rest of their lives? Never having enough food and water? Not even having a water bowl? All that money we gave them, can’t even buy some water bowls? Breathing diesel fumes and eating diesel every day? [Diesel sprayed to kill flies.] Getting diarrhoea all the time? Drinking dead flies and putrid water? Paralysed dogs lying around until they have bedsores? Bedsores left untreated until infested with maggots? Eaten by maggots until they die. After they die leave them to decompose until their fur fall off in piles on the ground. After they rot, leave until maggots come out of their bodies and spread the diseases to all the others because can’t be bothered to bury. Cannot take care but still want, want, want!!! I cannot support this. I just feel so very sorry for the animals that have the misfortune of ending up there.
Today it rained and the roof leaked and it dripped on the puppies until they were shivering. There was nothing to be done. Mak Intan put a towel there but the water dripped through the towel. Put one water bowl there but there were two more drips and not enough bowls to go around. On normal days, she takes the water bowls out of the puppies’ cages because she says they sit in the water and get sick. Well now it rains right on them, and you know how cold the rain water is. Then when they get sick, no time to give medicine. When they die, it is God’s will. The parrot’s food (rabbit pellets) was so old, there were bugs making nests and reproducing in it! There were so many bugs, they spilled over onto the ground below! I gave the parrot some grains and he just ate and ate and ate. Has he ever had any proper bird food in his 10+ years there? Even the parrot is underweight.
During the gotong-royong, a lot of stuff was moved out of the place. OMG, there were boxes and boxes of medicine and supplements that people donated but they have all never even been opened! Just like the food I bought for them - just stuffed somewhere and forgotten.
Anyways, I don’t want to do anything there anymore. They have created a hell for animals. Just keeping animals alive or barely alive - what’s so heroic about this? All the cats were so hungry that when I entered the room, all of them started meowing at me loudly. The whole wall of cats shouting in unison! You know cats don’t vocalise unless it’s really serious, and every single one of them was shouting loudly. Anyway, I didn’t do any work there today after that. As I have always thought at the back of my mind, if I relieve their burden, they would feel less put-upon and take on more and more animals. I feel very sorry for the animals, but I can’t do anything about it.
I am not doing any good there. I am merely prolonging suffering. I feel bad that I gave them money. It would’ve been better given to a shelter that takes good care of their animals and adopts them out to good homes. Then only is that truly helping the animals. I didn’t do my homework. I always check charities out thoroughly and look at their accounts before giving them a cent, but I was so touched after watching that video that emotion overruled thinking. Even after noticing a lie in the video (that 50kg of rice cost RM500), I pushed it aside. Now, after seeing the truth, I realise that giving money to a shitty shelter only makes it a rich shitty shelter. These people are not helping the animals - they are merely imprisoning them, starving them and killing them from neglect, and they have no intention of changing whatsoever, and all the volunteers who have asked them to do things differently have been kicked out.
I was going to quit already anyway but felt bad for leaving all the animals. If I didn’t give them water in the afternoon, perhaps they would have no water until the next morning. But I cannot do anything more with this hell-hole. I just cry for the animals who are left behind.
~ ~ ~
Add: I was not 'kicked out' per se - I left of my own free will because I could no longer support what they were doing. Since I had no intention of ever returning there, I started this FB page to expose them. After I left, I realised that I had several kilos of food that I had bought for the chicken, rabbits and dogs, and that I had not yet given all this to them. I had no other use for it. So the next weekend, I brought it over. I was rather afraid to go but I went anyway, and that was when Mak Intan became very aggressive and kicked me out. She said, "Get out!! I don't ever want to see your face here again!!!" (Read more: http://pakmieshelterhell.blogspot.com/2013/03/miko-starves.html)
So to those who say I started the page because I was bitter that I was kicked out, why the hell would I be bitter? Did I lose a salary? Did I miss being saturated in shit and fleas? I started the page after I quit, and I quit because I was disgusted with what was going on there and it was a hopeless situation for the animals. I was only kicked out AFTER I blew the whistle and exposed them for the frauds that they are, and they couldn't have me hanging around taking more damaging pictures.
