Chinese in Muslim Country Means 300 Dogs Dumped On Deserted Island

A bunch of Chinese residents rounded up all of the dogs on their Malaysian island of Pulau Ketam and took them by boat to a deserted island and left them there to die, fight each other to the death, and to rid the island of rats. Of course there was no food, so the dogs turned to cannibalism.

From the AP here:

More than 300 stray dogs that were dumped on isolated islands turned to cannibalism after weeks of starvation. The plight of the dogs cast away by villagers on two small, uninhabited islands off Malaysia’s western Selangor state ignited outrage after activists this week released photographs showing dogs eating the carcasses of ones that had died.

Residents of a fishing village on Pulau Ketam, another island off Selangor, caught the dogs last month and took them to the islands covered in mangroves. The villagers said they never intended to be cruel – they believed the dogs could feed on the deserted islands’ wildlife – but wanted to rid their island of dogs that defecate on the streets and sometimes bite children.

On Monday activists saw several emaciated dogs “crowded and hunched around something – they were hungrily feasting on the remains of another dog. Nearby, a weak dog was screaming because several dogs were trying to bite her.”

Residents have said some dogs tried to swim back to their island, about a half-hour boat ride away, but it was not clear how many succeeded.

The Chinese have a history of animal cruelty–  and when you jam a bunch of them on an island in a country where dogs are frowned upon because of their Islamic faith, then you can be sure there will be periodic dog purges like this.  I know its a dog eat dog world, but damn!  Thanks to S&L for the story.  To see how the Chinese typically deal with dogs, click here.