Wildlife and dogs are here to stay, like it or not

Wild life and dogs are here to stay, like it or not

It is indeed very pressing that Wildlife patrol unit is planned by the Sabah Forestry Department in the Danum Valley-Maliau Basin-Imbak Canyon areas as the area will soon be patrolled by a 50-strong team on rotation basis and possibly armed to tackle the serious problem of poaching as is done in wildlife parks in other countries.

Maybe that is albeit a bit too late but nevertheless that is really positive action to allow wild life’s population to increase in number.

At the International Conference on  Heart of Borneo – “A decade of Heart of Borneo (HoB) Initiative: Accomplishments and the Way forward”, very well attended recently, one of the very concerned and passionate speaker Dr. Petra Kretzschmar – Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research/ Rhino and Forest Fund started her paper on securing, restoring and connecting habitat  for large mammals in Sabah, Malaysia calling for moments of silence (very unusual) when she presented on the screen issue of extinction of large mammals especially Rhino left with 2 in Sabah and possibly 5 in Borneo.  The impact of that silence is obvious. I was heart broken.

Yes, we are indeed very sad with that extinction of very exotic,   precious and rare animals in the wild in Borneo especially in Sabah after many decades of neglect, omission and “deliberate” action to make quick money by some trading in wild life.  Even the banned item like turtle eggs are still very much traded and consumed in dinners with a court case now in progress. Any excuse of that?

Now many may not be aware that our domestic animals like dogs and cats in our residential areas are now dwindling fast due to a whole range of reasons such as the laws enacted, by-laws of local authorities and enforcement of local authorities, religions, culture and eating habits, caring habits (cruelty), and attitudes etc.  

We may question who are the people who made those laws and bylaws on our domestic animals especially our so much considered the best friends of human being the domestic dogs. We have observed that some recent laws on them were meant to be “anti-cruelty” against the dogs. We have also observed actions to deal with dogs especially strayed ones with trap, neuter and spey and such as socalled “legalised” action.  Would such positive action contribute to extinction of dogs?

Be reminded that God had created all animals first before human beings and that human beings are expected to look after them according to Genesis in the Bible.  So can we review how we treat domestic dogs?

Why are dogs going extinct in Sabah?  It is going extinct in Kota Kinabalu city for all sorts of reasons already briefly mentioned above and the impact of that is taking roots to reduce the number of dogs in all residential areas.  That is the observation if we move around all residential areas.

There is smoke of the extinction of the dogs in Kota Kinabalu and many may not regret it when “extinction” does arise although our best friends are very useful and helpful in solving certain crimes in illicit drugs possession, emergency aspects in search and rescue (SAR) operations, as blind guides, security at homes and farmers and rubber tapers in facing snakes in the fields and the endless list. My first dog Magi in KK saved me from a cobra in 1992 about a few feet from me when Magi just went in the middle space in split second in between that snake ready to attack me at my front door at about 7pm.

DBKK had once complained that very few dogs were licensed in Kota Kinabalu?  Why when the fees were low?

Stray dogs are unfortunate and city life can be nourished by some natural sound from the wild and the once kampong life.  Many in this generation have come from once rural areas when we wake up to the crows of cock greeting us “good morning”. Now we don’t hear any more cock crows except some rare ones in transit meant to be cooked for festivals in KK.

Dogs and strayed ones do bite to send an appropriate message in society to attract good attention.

Now we do appreciate many birds come to our homes in search of food and singing in the early mornings.  Some may detest the droppings left by them. Pigeons etc are now aplenty in KK and what a sight?.

Like the extinction of mammals in the wild now colourful tourism assets now attracting much attention after decades of harmful action by human inhabitants, and we are now aware that it very expensive or possibly impossible to reverse the extinction of the priceless wild mammals and please don’t make this happen to our dogs that may make much noises at time especially evil and demonic doses arrive in our homes.  Dogs can deal with unseen “intrusion” by howling at such evil spiritual manifestations. Is that one of the reasons for those advocating destruction of dogs as man’s best friend as it is known so far?

Lets us be more humane and tolerant with our dogs in the big picture of animals in general including those in the wild which are not touchable by human beings except those few ones that can be “tamed”. Dogs are by nature so tame and friendly and so handle them well.

Joshua Y C Kong 27/10/2017