I sent this to The Star.

I sent this letter to The Star just now. Let's see whether it will be published or not.

Referring to the letter “Attacked by dogs on Penang beach" written by DES MM2H, I sympathise with the ordeal the writer had gone through. However, I have some questions in mind to understand the incident.

First of all, I am curious why the dogs would want to lunge at the writer. I believed that dogs would not attack anyone unless the dogs have rabies or have been provoked.

I lived in a neighbourhood filled with stray dogs and I never had any problems with them so far. Based on my own observation, the stray dogs would not bark at anyone save for a few individuals. And you would ask why of all the hundreds of people walking around in my neighbourhood, why would the stray dogs only bark at a few individuals. I came to know that the stray dogs would bark collectively at this particular woman whenever she walks along one particular stretch of road. My guess was that she must have provoked the dogs before but unfortunately, I don’t have evidence to confirm that. I was then told by another resident that she is someone who hates dogs because she had always complain to her friends how annoying the stray dogs are, although they don’t harm anyone. Either my guess is right or that the dogs have six-sense.

There was a particular time when the dogs would only bark at those who were riding noisy motorbikes along that stretch of road. It does not take a veterinarian to suspect that something must have happened earlier. To confirm my suspicion, I peeked out of my window late one night and saw a group of mat rempits provoking the stray dogs. They were revving their engine loudly directly in front of the dogs and some of them would graze their bikes against the dogs that happened to stand by the side of the road.

As a result, these dogs started barking at anyone riding noisy bikes throughout the day. Fortunately, the mat rempits have stopped hanging out at my neighbourhood and hence, the stray dogs have stopped their barking towards anyone riding noisy bikes.

Secondly, were the dogs just merely barking at the writer or were they really lunging at the writer?

Throughout my life, whenever a dog barks at me, I would just ignore it and walk away quietly. Strangely, I have seen people retaliated by making funny noises towards the dogs, showing their fists, shouting, or even chasing after the dogs instead. I have seen enough of antics among humans. Those people are only looking for more trouble and when they were bitten, they never tell the press what they have done to the dog.

The only time when dogs would lunge and bark at me was whenever I walked past a house with pet dogs that were chained or were kept in a cage. Just like the case of the Irishman who was mauled by two dogs. Those dogs are pet dogs, not stray dogs.

Hence, if the dogs lunged at the writer, the writer would have been bitten already. Hence, were the dogs just merely barking or were they really lunging at the writer? If the dogs were just merely barking, all the writer need to do is to walk away quietly. Throwing sand at the dogs would only aggravate the situation. Therefore, it explained why the dogs instead came forward barring their teeth towards the writer after the writer threw sand at the dogs.

Thirdly, are the dogs mentioned stray dogs or pet dogs? If the dogs belong to someone, I wished the owner should have been more careful. If the dogs were stray dogs, it is certainly weird (based on my own experience) for the dogs wanting to attack someone at random unless the dogs have rabies or they have been provoked in the first place.

Yes, I agree that the population of stray dogs should have been controlled through spaying, not by shooting innocent stray dogs. I am afraid that after yesterday’s letter was published, the municipal council might start killing innocent stray dogs throughout the island that are unrelated to the incident.