Owners of goat and dog under scrutiny | Daily Express Malaysia

CITY Hall has instructed the tenant of a Kepayan home to stop rearing livestock inside the compound.
The agency also asked a Manggatal home-owner to ensure that her dogs do not disrupt the peace in her neighbourhood.

This follows feedback from several ratepayers in Taman Ridgeview ratepayer and another from Taman Seribaru Manggatal about the nuisance posed by these animals.

One of those staying in the former housing area spoke out about the stench given off by the goat droppings.  

He said this aggravation had persisted on and off for the past five years. 

There was a time, according to him, when the goat-owner had as many as 10 of these livestock. At one stage, even rabbits were being reared inside the compound.

On top of turning the residence into a make-shift farm, the ratepayer said the tenant also had the audacity to slaughter the animals there, with customers visiting the premises to buy the meat.

He expressed misgivings about negative impact of running a slaughterhouse in a residential area, saying that the blood and offal were not disposed off properly. 

The entrails and internal organs were packed into garbage bags and placed beside the bin for the house, according to him.

Another Kepayan homeowner had noticed an increase in the number of flies coming into her home. 

She suspected that these insects were being drawn to dung which was strewn about in the common area, as the goat-owner allowed his pets to eat the overgrown grass on the drain reserves.

The Manggatal rate-payer, meanwhile, said her neighbour had two lap dogs who were driving her and her family up the wall.

She said the small breed canines barked almost non-stop from the time their mistress left for work till she came home for the day. There had been numerous instances where the dog-owner only returned at around 11.30pm, according to her.

The resident said the barking often prevented the family – including her primary school-aged son – from getting a restful sleep at night.

She said the four-legged pair sometimes instigated the other dogs in the neighbourhood to contribute to the din. Once they started barking, according to her, the other canines would also do likewise.

All these individuals provided Hotline with the pertinent details as regards their grievances. This information was forwarded to the agency.

A spokeswoman for the City Hall’s Environmental Health Department said two personnel with its Animal Control Unit (ACU) went to Taman Ridgeview shortly after learning what had been transpiring in Phase 9 of the neighbourhood.

She said six staff from the Veterinary Services Department were also present during this inspection.

“The group noted the presence of a goat grazing on the long grass which had sprung up on the shoulder of a large drain outside a home on Lorong Ridgeview 1,” she said.

“They met with the pet-owner who told them he was keeping the animal temporarily. The goat was supposedly going to be used for his newborn’s ‘Majilis Akikah (Fullmoon celebration)’.”

She said the individual was also queried about whether he was slaughtering animals at his rented premises and putting up their meat for sale.

He was verbally ordered to refrain from carrying out such activities from the residence with immediate affect, according to her. 

On top of this, she said, he was told to cease looking after any more goats there.

“He was asked to shift the present goat away as a ‘kawasan perumahan (housing area)’ was not a suitable location to keep livestock.”

In the case of Taman Seribaru Manggatal, the spokeswoman said an ACU personnel found that the licences for the two lap dogs had lapsed.

“Their owner was asked to obtain new licences for 2025,” she said. “Our personnel also gave her some pointers on how she might go about preventing her pets from barking loudly while she was away.

“She was surprised to learn about her dogs’ behaviour after she and her husband were away, as they did not bark incessantly when she was around.” 

She said the dog-owner was served with a notice to be more proactive in ensuring that her pets did not continue to become a public nuisance.

The spokeswoman said both pet-owners were given a grace period in which to fulfil City Hall’s instructions and were informed that further action could be taken against them if they failed to do so.

She said those who refused to comply risked being taken to court for contravening the Local Government Ordinance 1961 (Amendment 2000).

“If found guilty, they can be fined as much as RM1,000 or be asked to serve a jail term of up to six months, or both.”