Saving the Swamp Dogs From Lethal Injections
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, Toa Payoh Vets, toapayohvets.com
Chapter 1. Did the Animal Activist Fail in Her Mission?
Chapter 2. A Volunteer with Passion Is worth 40 Merely Interested.
Chapter 3. The Looters Attacked the Pack Leader.
Chapter 4. If Only We Can Turn Back the Clock for the Pack Leader...
Chapter 5. NANAS. Swamp Dogs Saved From Lethal Injections.
CHAPTER 1
Jun 14, 2007, Yishun, Singapore
"Why did you throw stones at the monitor lizard ?" I asked Esther Seah, as Lynda Goh bumped her Sports Utility Vehicle forward along the pot-holed and undulating jungle track, off Yishun Avenue 6 in the Northern part of Singapore.
Singapore Yishun swamp land - monitor lizard - Dog - Toa Payoh Vets
We ignored at least two bright red military warning signs with illustrations of soldiers carrying guns shooting trespassers, tall lallang grasses, fallen tree branches, thick vines, ferns, shrubs and roots of mangrove trees lining the sedate greyish-green KhatibBongsu River on our left. On our right was the secondary forests.
Mangrove trees lined the green-algae Khatib Bongsu River
A hidden Eden in the city-state of Singapore --- no high rises, no crowds, fresh air of with the fragrance of wild flowers, blue skies with white cotton-like clouds seen in landscape paintings.
Khatib Bongsu River and swamp land, Singapore, Toa Payoh Vets
A fish and crab trap set up by the 68-year-old man who lived by the Khatib Bongsu River.
Lynda, an animal activist had packed 5 volunteers into her SUVon a mission to get 21 swamp dogs caught, vaccinated and microchipped and relocated to NANAS (Noah's Ark and Animal Sanctuary) in 10 days' time.
A skier on the Khatib Bongsu River is seen from the fishing pond.
Should she fail in her mission, all dogs would be put to sleep by lethal injections by a veterinarian. If she succeeded, they would live out their lives in NANAS, a no-kill animal shelter in the Southern part of Malaysia.
Lynda, an animal activist for NANAS has just parked her SUV. Numerous cell phone queries on animal welfare needed to be answered.
The military had taken over the premises. The two tenants (a family and a 68-year-old man) must vacate the premises in 10 days' time as their lease to operate a fishing pond would expire. The fishing pond is a place where customers would rent the wooden chairs, throw in the fishing line with bait and hope to catch big fishes in safety. Without the risks of being captured by pirates if they fish at sea. Sometimes they smoked as they de-stress themselves.
Tenant 1 in front row with Lynda (left) and Esther (right). Back row: Esther's 2 children with the vet. Fish pond is in the background.
Tenant 2 is a 68-year-old man with Lynda (left), Esther's 2 children and Esther. Khatib Bongsu River is in the background.
Lynda was not familiar with the exact location and relied on Esther's directions to get us to the swamp land. Google Earth's 2006 satellite pictures showed me several big rectangular ponds carved out of the mangrove swamp land and wetland larger than 100,000 football fields. These pictures looked similar to those I saw in a recent National Geographic report about mangrove trees in South America being destroyed by business constructing shrimp farms.
Lynda's volunteers were a photographer, an animal activist Esther Seah with her two children and a veterinarian (myself). We met for the first time in the SUV.
On the way, Esther told us that the swamp land had gigantic monitor lizards. On one occasion she and her children were stoning one. It is out of a character of an animal activist to harm animals, especially wildlife. That was why I asked why she was stoning the gigantic monitor lizard in the swamp land.
"We threw stones at the monitor lizard away because he ate puppies," Esther elaborated. "When a puppy fell into the fish pond, the monitor lizard dived in and swallowed him. I know of two big monitor lizards living in burrows dug below the banks of the river."
Swamp land puppies were born free. Once they could walk, they could wander onto the planks at the fringe of the fish pond. Some would fall into the pond and drown. Predators like pythons, estaurine crocodiles, eagles and monitor lizards prey on them.
"It is survival of the fittest," I heard Lynda softly stating the laws of the jungle as she made sure that her SUV would not overturn as it hit a large pot hole.
Esther continued: "We were helping the swamp dogs to chase the monitor lizard away from the puppies by throwing pebbles at him. The monitor lizard hissed and puffed his throat to a large size. He tried to claw the dogs with his sharp claws. The dogs continued to assault from the flank. His slender muscular tail lashed out at some dogs. Suddenly he sprinted towards me and the children."
What a smart creature, I thought. Offence is the best form of defence.
"Why did he not just jump into the river?" I asked. Monitor lizards can swim and are said to be able to stay submerged in the water for 30 minutes.
"A fence was behind him. The swamp dogs were flanking him. My children and I were in front of him. He suddenly charged at us."
I would not believe her story. How could a monitor lizard frighten an adult woman of respectable size and one who would be at least 3 times bigger than him? I could not expect him to be a Godzilla or a Komodo Dragon.
"The four-legged snake (monitor lizard in the Hokkien dialect) was as big as me," Esther said.
"If you include his tail, he is about my size." Esther read my incredulous eyes and arched eyebrows. "I had a picture in my mobile phone to show you."
"What happened when the lizard charged towards you and your two children?" I asked.
"We scattered in all directions as fast as our legs could carry us. The monitor lizard leaped into the river behind us." What a smart creature! Withdraw when outnumbered. Live to fight another day.
The volunteer photographer, a young adult in his 2nd year of junior college was quiet. Could he be worried. Ferocious swamp dogs and big reptiles are seldom encountered by him as he lived in a developed area of high rise apartments. This sounded like a risky mission. Would all of us survive?
Fortunately, the swamp dogs were mostly easy to handle as the tenants were around. Fit, trim, good conditioned orange coat and well muscled limbs conditioned by lots of exercise and swimming in the river Most of them had snow-white strong canine teeth indicating that they were around 2 years old.
Esther focused on leashing the swamp dog while Tenant 1's matriarch offered some pork pieces. Photographer in the background.
"It is safer to put dogs on a table," I advised as Lynda and Esther caught the first dog and held one on the ground for me. The dogs were apprehensive as I saw their eye whites and alert eyes. We were at the premises of Tenant 1. The young-looking lady who was the matriarch provided Esther and her daughter with bread and pork to get close to the dogs.
I could see that Esther's pre-teen daughter was a proactive animal activist. She gave bread to some dogs so that they could be leashed by her mum. The mother had transmitted her love of and kindness to dogs in need of help to this primary school girl.
However, Esther's pre-teen son rested on the bench of the fish pond to appreciate the countryside. Let his mother lasso the dogs. Lynda found a squeaky wobbly greenish white circular stone table to place the dogs so that I could do a good job.
Esther's daughter is getting some bread for the dogs.
"It is safer to muzzle them," I advised Lynda as she grabbed the big dogs for me like a World Wrestling Federation wrestler. She had the weight advantage in canine wrestling, I thought. But the dogs had sharp fangs.
But we were handling a pack of swamp dogs used to freedom and swimming in the river and little contact with strangers.
All dogs had wrinkled faces, eyeballs showing more eye white than usual as if they were nervous. Stiff hairs stuck out of their back area and tails down when they were put on the table. One of these apprehensive dogs could sink the strong canine teeth into Lynda's face or hands while she restrained them.
"You never know when a dog is going to bite you while I inject." I noted that the young photographer simply came close to the dogs to take pictures for NANAS without fear. These were not the ordinary household pets!
Once a dog in a pack bites people, he transmits a 'smell and sound of fear'. The rest of the pack would sense the dangers and become uncontrollable. We would not accomplish the mission.
"Tell me how you do it?" Lynda asked after I had knotted the dogs' muzzle tightly with one end of the leash. She forgot to bring the commercial dog muzzle.
"Make a loop with one end of the leash as if you are tying up a present," I said. "Slip this loop over the muzzle and tighten the knot. In this way, the dog becomes submissive and cannot bite."
There were no mass hysteria. Lynda got raffia strings from the owner to tie round the neck of the dogs that had been tagged. A nursing dam and a young wary male dog were difficult to catch.
"I will bring the dam to your clinic another time," Lynda said. "We still had the 8 dogs of Tenant 2 to catch."
Spaying female dogs would reduce the number of unwanted puppies.
"I have cancelled all my morning appointments," I said. "Persevere to catch the 2 dogs". In my heart, I knew that the dogs and puppies that missed the vaccination today would pay the ultimate price - death by lethal injections.
Singapore is reported to have at least 10,000 - 20,000 unwanted pedigreed and cross-bred dogs a year euthanased. Therefore, the cross-bred swamp dogs have very little chance of being adopted.
Voluntary organisations are always short of money, time and resources. These are the realities of life. It was now or never for these swamp dogs.
The 68-year-old man loved all his 9 dogs. Only 7 dogs were vaccinated and microchipped.
I was glad the Lynda roped in the nursing dam for me to vaccinate and microchip.
"We have to abandon the suspicious male," Lynda told me. "The dog everted his lips and growled while he was cornered inside the house. We have to go to Tenant 2 to vaccinate his 8 dogs."
The wary male could not be enticed with food treats. He ran into the house as the volunteers came after him. He ran out. He would stand around 1 meter away from the food temptresses He was incorruptible. I should not anthropomorphise by attributing corruption which is a human value of ethics to ananimal such as a dog.
Lynda is trying to get the wary male dog (foreground) to go near to Esther.
Lynda and Esther led us to Tenant 2 nearby. The 68-year-old man simply caught and carried 7 out of his 8 dogs.
"The 8th dog is too shy when strangers are around," the old man with a thick crop of silvery hair said. His well defined biceps, flat abdominal muscles and lean weight made me feel that I needed to exercise to remove my excess weight. He was the poster 'boy' for the Health Promotion Board (HPB) of Singapore trying to educate Singaporeans to eat less fat, exercise and not get high blood pressure and diabetes. If only Singapore has a fitness club catering to oldies, he would earn a good living.
Esther continued writing down the description of the dogs on the piece of paper salvaged from the microchip package while Lynda helped put the dog on a make-shift table.
"Do you want to go to NANAS to visit your dogs?" I asked the 68-year-old man tenant who had lived alone close to nature for several decades. He never spoke much. He looked so sad. "There are buses in Jurong and a taxi service in Johore to get to NANAS."
He was silent. I repeated my question in the Hokkien dialect.
"Maybe some time later," he waved his left hand as if wiping a tear off his left eye and would not want to talk further about his losses of canine companionship.
"Do you have a place to live?" I asked him. He lifted the heavy water container with one hand while I could not lift it up 2 cm from the ground! He said in a whisper that he would live with his daughter in an apartment.
Tenant 1 was a closely knitted family with a much older man. The patriarch had reclaimed the land we stood on to start shrimp farming around 50 years ago. He told me he would live with his children.
By 12.30 p.m, 21 swamp dogs had been vaccinated. I hope all would live their natural lives in NANAS. .
"The dogs will adapt well to the communal living in NANAS," Lynda assured me "Unlike dogs that live in apartments alone."
Saving 21 dogs and 1 cat from euthanasia. Toa Payoh Vets
Lynda was fielding numerous animal welfare queries on her mobile phone. Fish pond (foreground).
"Would the monitor lizard survive now that contractors and the military come into the swamp land?" I asked a snow-white haired man in his fifties. He was a son-in-law of the patriarch of the Tenant 1 group.
For the last 2 years, he had been unemployed as his job at the chip-making factory disappeared. Singapore's high-cost manufacturing industry had hollowed out in recent years as China becomes the world's cheapest factory producing various products. It was incredibly difficult for men over fifties to get a decent job in Singapore.
"The estimated 20 monitor lizards would survive. It is not that easy for the construction workers and army boys to catch and eat them," the snow-white haired man assured me. I thought it would be easy as trappers could some meat inside a big cage which is a gigantic mouse-trap.
"Will there be monitor lizards in NANAS?" I text-message Lynda some days later as I wondered how the free roaming rehomed puppies in communal living survive in NANAS.
NANAS website, noahsarklodge.com showed a forested enclave. Will there be rivers nearby? The Malayan Water Monitor Lizard which Esther had encountered is commonly found near water and in forests.
"No, only beautiful birds." Lynda disappointed me with her reply.
I live in one of those concrete jungles of Singapore and rarely encounter a sparrow, let alone wildlife. Now, if Lynda had said there are monitor lizards in NANAS, I would head for NANAS in a wink of an eye.
Lynda had much paper work to do to relocate the dogs. She had her own office work. But 10 days passed quickly. I phoned her. The dogs and puppies were still in the Yishun Swamp Land. Did the animal activist fail in her mission? There would be a very high price to pay. Death by lethal injections for the dogs.
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