Stray dogs menace or human menace?

I wrote in to The Star again and let's see if they would publish it in a few days time. The last time I wrote in to The Star was last year March. You can read it here.

This time I am writing about stray dogs. Yes, stray dogs again.

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Referring to a few numbers of recent write-ups about the stray dogs menace in Batu Ferringhi, I am compelled to voice out the other side of the story.

If you had a chance to visit Penang, please take a stroll along the Batu Ferringhi beach and chances are that you might encounter mischievous children and even adults taunting or even pelting the stray dogs unprovoked. Yes, there are even adults who behaved childishly by provoking those dogs.

So, it seems that all these stray dog abuse incidents are never reported in the press and it gave the impression that those stray dogs have to take full blame for their aggression. No, I am not saying that the victims are the one provoking the stray dogs. What I meant is that all these abuses have been ongoing for years unreported and common sense tells me that when a stray dog has been abused continuously, it has the tendency to turn aggressive and might attack unprovoked.

Thanks to us, human beings ourselves, we had moulded those stray dogs into a killer pack by continually taunting, pelting or even walloping them.

I agree that the population of stray dogs should be controlled, at least in an ethical manner but at the same time, everyone should be educated to respect animals. I just don’t’ understand why some people have to taunt the stray dogs even if those dogs are just lying down quietly. Let sleeping dogs lie, shall we?