Culling of stray dogs, is it a must?

As we all know, rabies is spreading in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. There were like three cases already happening in Penang. The state government is taking the step of culling of stray dogs to prevent rabies from spreading. This decision is somehow kinda opposed by animal activists.

A little from the article "Animal Activist begs halt to culling of stray dogs" in The Star paper today:-

Penang Animal Welfare Society (4Paws) founder Babara Janssen was in tears as she went down on her knees. She passed out momentarily before she was help up.

"I love Penang like I love the dogs and this is my home. If I have to die for Penang for the betterment of dogs, I will do it."

We as humans will always have the love for other living creatures. The guilt of killing a living creature will be there. But there will always be people who loves them more. We will be like "Poor dogs.." but we won't really do anything. These people will be fighting for the dogs, trying to spare them a life. Hearts are made from crystals. When a person chooses to made such decision is either from his/her:-

1. Rational thinking

or

2. The person is selfish

Well, it depends on how we see the issue. From one perspective, we will be like, yes.. what the state government do is correct. This will save more lives.. human are in risk. As featured in The Star:-

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said he was only doing his job as a state leader by not putting people at risk, adding that he was willing to lose public support over his decision. 

"I respect opinions of animal activists and non-governmental organisations and I hope they will respect mine. I only made this decision after getting advice from experts in the state veterinary and health departments. I don't want to put lives of 1.6 million Penangnites at risk."

And some people will be like "Yes, you do it right, man! Hey, we love dogs too, but.. you choose.. the dogs die, or you die?"

Being a leader is not easy. When it come to issues like that, I guess.. nope, I am pretty sure that this is a really hard decision to make.

From another perspective, like, as in from the animal lovers' perspective, it is really a hard reality to swallow. It is bitter to see these happening without doing anything. Imagine, the animal activists were doing so much, preparing places for stray dogs and cats to stay, organizing a lot of events to raise fund for these lovely creatures. Whoever follows their pages should know. It is a great effort and we really see how much they really care regarding this issue.

But, to think rationally.. I read my friend's status a few days ago. It really opened my eyes on this issue.

"Culling dogs? Maybe we should cull humans who are infected too! And also cull uninfected humans coz they risk being infected!"

 "Maybe we should start killing Africans to prevent the spread of Ebola."

 And if you think, stray dogs' population can be considered large. You think it is possible to cull all of them?

I'm not saying who is wrong and who is right here but.. to me, maybe there is other ways? Culling of stray dogs is not the only way, right? It is sad to see this. I think I might cry if I'm there to watch this happen. They are living creatures just like us. Why we can kill them just like that? Why can't we kill human too, just like that? If it is human, why we do take the effort to find other ways? They have families, just like us. They breathe, just like us. They have feelings, just like us.

Credits to: Facebook and The Star