IPOH: The Ipoh City Council continues to defend its policy of shooting stray dogs as part of a standard operating procedure but says that it is working with animal welfare groups after coming under fire.

Council spokesman Syahrizal Azmi said the method used by the enforcement was according to the law.

“The method followed our standard procedure. Enforcement can’t simply take action without any legal support. We receive over 100 complaints about strays dogs from the public in a month.

“As of May this year, we have caught at least 1,031 stray dogs, which we will release at a landfill near Papan,” he told reporters in Bercham near here yesterday.

On May 24, a video of an Ipoh City Council worker shooting a dog went viral on social media, prompting a backlash from animal welfare groups and members of the public.

Syahrizal said the council was working with the Ipoh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) to curb the population of stray dogs in the city.

“We will supply manpower and tools needed to catch stray dogs and ISPCA will then send these to be neutered,” he said.

ISCPA president Ricky Soong said it was hopeful that more stray dogs could be neutered.

“By neutering the strays, we can at least reduce the population. We believe that this will be a better action than killing them.

“ISCPA has neutered more than 2,000 strays dogs since 2017. Once neutered, each dog will be tagged with a marking tip, collar and a microchip containing all its information. We do know that there are some animal lovers who would send these dogs to be neutered using their own money.

“However, we urge them to provide the dogs with a microchip, collar and marking tip to avoid enforcement from taking any action towards these animals,” he said.

Soong named Bercham, Mengelembu and Taman Botani in Ipoh as areas with stray dogs.