Following two recent cases of mysterious cat deaths at Universiti Malaya (UM), animal rights activists suspect a deranged individual may be targeting felines on the campus.
At a press conference on Monday (Dec 23), Rajesh Nagarajan of Lawyers for Animal Rights raised concerns about a "psychopath" killing stray animals and disputed police claims that stray dogs were responsible.
Dermatologist Dr Kartini Farah Rahim supported this, noting that the injuries found on the dead cats were inconsistent with those typically caused by dog attacks.
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At a press conference on Monday (Dec 23), Rajesh Nagarajan of Lawyers for Animal Rights raised concerns about a "psychopath" killing stray animals and disputed police claims that stray dogs were responsible.
Dermatologist Dr Kartini Farah Rahim supported this, noting that the injuries found on the dead cats were inconsistent with those typically caused by dog attacks.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00On the 20th of December, I received a body of a cat named Lily.
00:11It was before viral that she was murdered in Newsea, Malaya in one of the faculty and
00:17the body was passed to me and it was brought to a private vet where I requested for the
00:24doctor to help me identify what actually happened to the body, what happened to Lily.
00:31Based on the medical report, it showed that she was not murdered by dogs, she was murdered
00:39by someone, which we need to find out who immediately.
00:46Her limbs were cut with something sharp, which is impossible for any other animals,
00:53dogs or other animals, to do this to a body, to a cat.
00:57So it is very crucial that we find out what actually happened, who did this to her,
01:04because this could happen again, it will happen again, and we might not discover the body this
01:10time, it could happen to another human. So it is important for the authorities,
01:16PDRM, DVS and UM themselves to find out what actually is going on and to tell the public
01:26what is happening right now.
01:46But Lily did not have any of the items that were found, and also the clean cut,
01:52her legs from the x-ray all looked like she was using a sharp tool.
02:01And there was no sign of struggle, we did not see the cat, which usually the dog would bite the
02:08neck and also the stomach and the belly, but not here, there was no sign of
02:16struggle.
02:24This issue has become an important issue, where cats, multiple cats have been murdered
02:30in the University of Malaya campus, and yet the police have merely stated that this is the action
02:36of dogs. Now this makes no sense at all, as you can clearly see from this x-ray here,
02:42that this here, this limb has been cut, the cutting is so clear, I'm a layperson,
02:48I'm not a doctor, and it's obvious to me, how can a dog do this? Did DVS get a post-mortem report?
02:56There are cats dead in Malaysia's premier university, and what is DVS doing? Why did
03:02they not do a post-mortem? How can you come to the conclusion that dogs did it without a
03:08post-mortem? Doesn't make sense, isn't it? How can the PDRM say NFA? How can they come to the
03:14conclusion it's dogs? That is number one. Number two, if you look at the medical report that they
03:20have obtained from a private vet, based on the appearance of the wounds and the clean cuts
03:26observed at the joint levels, the lesions are highly likely to have been caused by a sharp
03:32equipment. Now this, you don't need a doctor to tell you this. The cutting is so sharp,
03:38that it's obvious that a sharp instrument was used. How can you say that a dog did this?
03:46We demand, we demand that the PDRM, we demand that the DVS, and we also demand that University
03:53of Malaya investigate this matter, investigate the murder of these cats, and come to the bottom of
04:00this problem. And where is the Animal Welfare Board? The Animal Welfare Board is supposed to
04:08take care of animal welfare. We have cats that are being murdered in University of Malaya,
04:13and not a peep from the Animal Welfare Board. All animal activists in Malaysia and the Malaysian
04:20public need to question the Animal Welfare Board. The Animal Welfare Board needs to come out and
04:26defend itself, due to their inaction. No statement, not even a single statement.
04:33This is completely unacceptable. We, the Malaysian public, are not going to accept this. We are not
04:39going to accept this entire issue being blamed on dogs, when it's very clearly that some individual
04:45has committed this crime. We demand that the police investigate this matter properly,
04:50that the DVS do a post-mortem, and come to the bottom of this issue,
04:55and not just try to sweep it under the rug. It's completely unacceptable.
04:59What are the next steps that you are planning to do to pursue this case further?
05:04The next step would be, we demand that the police, DVS and UN, open back the investigation,
05:13make sure the safety of all the cats, and possible dogs, and the students there in the campus,
05:21to not take things lightly, and to really take these things seriously. They can't speak for
05:28themselves, the animals can't defend themselves, so it's our job to fight for them, and to find
05:33justice for Lily and the friends. What legal avenues do we have to challenge
05:39PDRM's decision, given that we have this evidence? Let's say, this is not a piece of evidence that
05:45they would have, so could we get them to reinstate the investigation with fresh evidence?
05:52In relation to the investigation by PDRM, we don't have legal avenues in the sense that,
05:57you know, we can't take them to court, unfortunately. But what we do have,
06:01is we have the power of public pressure. And the public must voice out and demand
06:06that the murders of these cats are investigated properly. Because it's very clear that a proper
06:13investigation has not been done. Because if a proper investigation was done,
06:17then where is the post-mortem report? Okay, so that is with PDRM. How about with
06:22BBS? Because PDRM is under Penal Code, and BBS under Animal Welfare Act. Could we challenge them
06:28on their decision, with fresh evidence? I think that's exactly what we are doing
06:33right now. We are challenging their statement, because they issued multiple statements saying
06:38that these are the actions of dogs. We are challenging them. We have a medical report,
06:42and we have an X-ray. We have two. Medical report and X-ray to challenge them, saying that,
06:46no, this is not dogs. Now, if they want to say, no, no, no, you are wrong. Okay, come,
06:51tell us why they are wrong. If I'm wrong, I'll happily apologise. No problem.
06:56So, I would expect you to submit this to them officially, and, you know, with public pressure,
07:01you will be compelled to reinvestigate their decision?
07:04It's not for us to submit, it's for them to go and investigate.
07:07You know, why do we, the people, why do we have to investigate? They are being paid, right?
07:15It's the taxpayers' money. The DBS is being paid by the taxpayers' money. It is their duty to
07:20investigate. Go and investigate. Do your job. Correct or not? It's not my job.
07:26Have they approached us for this case, not yet?
07:28No. The DBS, have they done the post-mortem? That's the most important question.
07:34And how did they come to the conclusion that this is the action of dogs?
07:38Just because there's a CCTV where you can see some dogs and cats and interaction between them,
07:44that doesn't mean that the dog took out a knife and chopped off the cat's legs.
07:48Because that is what happened in this case. All four limbs were chopped off using a sharp
07:52instrument. It's very clear from the x-ray, it's very clear from the medical report.
07:57How many bodies does the DBS have right now?
08:00We have no idea. Number one, we have no idea how many cats have been murdered,
08:05but we know it's more than one. And we have no idea how many cats are in the possession of DBS.
08:10Why is there no transparency? It has to be very, very transparent. This is a public interest issue.
08:16We are all animal lovers in Malaysia. Doesn't matter what animal.
08:20We don't want any of the animals to suffer any harm at all.
08:23So that is the purpose of the DBS. DBS was created to ensure that animals are kept safe,
08:29that they are not abused, that anyone who abuses an animal is immediately brought to justice and
08:34given their rightful punishment. So in this situation, what is DBS doing? Where is the
08:40Animal Welfare Board? Why are they silent? Do we know what happened to the corpses that
08:46they found? So one of the matter that is very, I know that they were taken it not seriously.
08:51So we have, they have discovered a lot of bodies and we can only see it on pictures,
08:56on social media. It has been viral around. But my question is, you know this has been going on.
09:02What they did was once they found the body, they immediately buried the body.
09:07Why? I mean, I mean, why are you covering it up? Why aren't you like making it? This is a serious,
09:13serious issue, right? So why are you treating those cats like the garbage? I mean, if you're
09:21really, really serious about the severity of this situation, they would at least call DBS,
09:29make police report immediately, or at least preserve the body of the dead cats. So this is
09:34how I managed to get the body of Lily because the students are very like, they themselves are like,
09:40they are scared and they don't know what's going on. This is the cat that they've been taking care
09:43of for years and they want to know what happened. Obviously, it's not dogs. So with all their effort,
09:50they work together and say, we need help. We want to know what happens to our cat.
09:54So they themselves dug out the body. It was freshly buried and they dug out the body
09:59and they handed it over to me. Because we are students, we don't know what to do. So I was like,
10:03we need to, you know, check. We need to fight for Lily.
10:19Okay. CCTV ini, CCTV tersebut berlaku pada November, 27, 25 November. Dan kalau kita perhatikan
10:29betul-betul, kita boleh nampak kucing itu is still alive. But can you, pihak you ada kisah kan
10:36untuk hantar pada what you call forensic video untuk confirm, even the police can do it. Can you
10:41confirm it's the same cat that you found the body? There is no confirmation. It was just cut off,
10:48it's on the CCTV. Is it the same cat? Can you prove to us it's the same cat? And why is there
10:54only one CCTV? For today, we've seen how many pictures we have seen? Four, five, at least
11:01dead bodies. Four. Confirm four dead bodies. And one is with me. Where is the CCTV of Lily?
11:07And you can simply conclude, oh, semua anjing ada. It could be a different cat for all we know.
11:13And the location of the cat, CCTV itu, it's not where you found the dead body.
11:19It could be any other cat. And Lily was found on the third floor of the building. Don't tell me you
11:25allow dogs go up and down in your faculty and your compound. What kind of security system you have
11:30in your compound? I mean, something is really wrong.
11:44Dan kalau lebih ramai yang membantu untuk mencari bukti, mencari siapa culprit ini, dari segi
11:49undang-undangnya, bagaimana kita, bagaimana mereka ini boleh didakwa dan hukuman bagaimana yang akan
11:55diterima oleh pelaku ini? Seseorang pelaku yang telahpun mendela mana-mana haiwan haruslah
12:02dituduh di bawah Seksyen 29 Akta Terbajikan Haiwan 2015, di mana hukuman yang akan dikenakan adalah
12:10maksimal sebanyak 3 tahun di penjara dan juga minimum RM20,000 fine atau maksimum RM100,000 fine.
12:17Tetapi kami memohon dan kami berharap bahwa jika pelaku tertindakan yang keji ini dapat ditangkap,
12:23dia dimasukkan, disumpat terus ke dalam, ke dalam to prison, ke penjara selama sekurang-kurangnya
12:302 atau 3 tahun. Sepatutnya dia kena dapat hukuman maksimum lah. Soal apa yang dilakukan ini sangat-sangat
12:36keji dan sangat-sangat is very cruel, sangat-sangat kejam.