INHUMANE, atrocious and barbarous!

These are merely some of the words that can describe the cruel act of a community in Klang that had abandoned 400 stray dogs on a mangrove island to starve to death.

The dogs were trapped in cages last month, and with the help of the local council, they were shipped to an island that is almost impossible for any living thing to survive except poisonous snakes.

The Klang Municipal Council (MPK) paid the Pulau Ketam villagers for trapping the dogs according to sizes - RM10 for a big dog, RM8 for a medium-sized dog and RM5 for a small dog.

Pulau Ketam is a century-old fisherman's village near Port Klang, which is popular for its seafood restaurants.

The residents had complained about the growing number of stray dogs in their village and had asked the councillors to get rid of the dogs.

They felt that it was better to leave the dogs in a mangrove swamp in the middle of the sea to survive, rather than allowing the local council to put the dogs to sleep.

But thanks to a group of volunteers led blogger Terrence V Smith, better known as TV Smith, and animal-lover Sabrina Yeap, 28 dogs are now (as of May 25) resting safely in Miss Yeap's pet rescue shelter, Furry Friends Farm (FFF).

A good Samaritan had also offered to sponsor proper boats for them to travel to the island every day.

"We thank everyone who had donated to our rescue mission but we do not need money to hire boats for the mission anymore. Someone is willing to sponsor boats for us. It's wonderful news!" one of the volunteers, Miss Zalina, told me.

Things seem to look brighter for Mr Smith and his friends, as more volunteers including veterinarians came forward to join the mission.

Some of them are also camping around the island, Pulau Tengah, which they dubbed "hell island", to wait for more dogs to come out from the thick mangroves. According to Mr Smith, who updates his blog every day, most of the canines are still terrified of humans after they were trapped and dumped on the island.

When the volunteers first got there, some of the dogs had flesh-eating maggots infesting on their wounds, and most of them were scrawny.

They also suspected that the dogs could have survived on the carcasses of those who died of starvation and diseases.

"Disease is a real issue, particularly since the dogs were presumably randomly picked up and transferred to the island, because they will be weak and immune suppressed, and because they will have had close contact with each other and with the carcasses of those which have died.

"There will be a good chance that distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis or parvovirus may be circulating among them," wrote Mr Smith.

Miss Zalina told me they will continue their work until at least 75 per cent of the dogs are rescued.

This heart-wrenching story had not only grabbed the international media's attention, but it also drew criticisms against the community.

Visitors to the island's official website left 16 messages on the guestbook, asking the villagers to stop their cruel act.

On a personal note, I do not think blaming the Pulau Ketam community will solve the problem. And even if all the dogs are rescued, the villagers will still face the problem of an over population of stray dogs.

The root of the problem lies in the lack of education on the importance of spaying and neutering their pets, as well as lack of enforcement and punishment against animal cruelty.

In Malaysia, one of the laws that prohibits animal cruelty is the Animals Act 1953 that was revised in 2006.

Section 44 of the Act stipulates that it is an offence to beat, kick, ill-treat, override, overdrive, overload, torture, infurate or terrify any animal, and the offender is liable to a fine of RM200 or to imprisonment of six months or both.

Clearly, such penalty is insufficient to prevent animal cruelty. The villagers probably did not realise that it was wrong to leave the animals to starve to death. After all, the local government was assisting them.

Pulau Ketam village head Cha Keng Lee had reportedly said they only trapped 400 out of 2,000 dogs in the village, and the abandoned dogs could survive on fish, crabs, lizards, snakes and wild boar on the island.

It was evident that they did know of any other ways to get rid of the dogs, as it was not the first time for them to ship the dogs to another island.

MPK councillor in charge of Pulau Ketam Tee Beng Lee told The Star that residents had in the past caught and sent dogs to another island that was nearer to Pulau Ketam.

“But the dogs kept swimming back and that is why they are being sent to an island which is quite a distance from Pulau Ketam,’’ he said.

For those who would like to follow the developments of the dog rescue mission, go to Mr Smith's page at http://www.mycen.com.my/rescue/updates.html.