Not giving fair treatment to your pets

Warning 

The photographs below contain contents that is graphically disturbing, viewer's discretion is advised.

By Mark Tan

You have been seeing many happy pictures of Noah’s Ark.  It is time that we bring you behind the scene - a very sad one for this dog…

Very often we wish to bid the sanctuary good night after a hard day’s work and head out for a nice, happy, reasonable, and a good dinner in JB but some nights are just not meant to work the way we will it.

Last Sunday was one of those nights.  The case of a rotting Bulldog was brought to Ah Bee, our volunteer/pet transporter’s attention and without hesitation, he brought the Bulldog to Noah’s Ark ABC Clinic.

There was a huge tear on his left ear.  While checking on how severe the tear was, about 8 maggots crawled out.  A closer check, we found at least another 20 maggots in its badly infected ear canal.

A hole was spotted on the fold of his muzzle while Lee our Clinic Assistant was removing the maggots from its ear.  A further check revealed about 16 maggots infested holes on various parts of the poor Bulldog’s skin. The maggots have traveled beneath his skin, drilling through his flesh.

Further probes revealed that it all started with a dog fight.  The owner owns a few other dogs, and clearly in this case, the Bulldog wasn’t particularly the favourite in the pack.  His fight wounds were left to “self-heal”, which, in our Asian weather, is a near impossible process.

The open wounds were the perfect nesting place for houseflies.  When left untreated, the maggots literally eat through the dog, killing it eventually.

With the help of Lee and Alice, we managed to pull out all the visible maggots and cleaned up the holes.

The saddest part of it all?  The owner was not willing to spend more than RM300 (no, you didn't read me wrong.  THREE HUNDRED RINGGIT) for the dog's treatment.

With a case of neglect to this extent, how can one be spared a harsh reprimand by our founder, Raymund?

Let’s make this a lesson and not to repeat the same mistake by buying or adopting more than we can manage.  A pet is a lifelong commitment.  They need our time and effort to maintain them, apart from loads of TLC (tender loving care).

Ok - actually the saddest part was our dinner...  The stench of rotting flesh and rotting maggots lingered in our nostrils while we tried our best to enjoy a nice Chong Qing Steamboat at Bukit Indah.