Vet turned house into shelter for dogs and abandoned them

When the Singaporean opened the door to his Malaysian house last week, he was shocked to find about 30 starving dogs.

The man, who wanted to be known only as Mr Goh, even saw three of the dogs trying to eat another at the house in Taman Pelangi, Johor Baru.

"Some of them escaped when I opened the door and some even tried to eat me," Mr Goh told The New Paper.

It was one of his most frightening experiences.

He took a 13-second video of three dogs attacking a weaker dog when he got there last Wednesday.

"I had to chase some of the aggressive dogs away with a stick.

"I've never seen anything like it."

The house was rented to a Malaysian woman in her 40s, who used to be a veterinarian in Singapore, said Mr Goh.

He had rented it to her since April 2013 for RM3,000 (S$1,100) a month.

But the woman, known only as Dr Lim, stopped paying rent four months ago.

Mr Goh last spoke to her five months ago.

It was only last week that he dropped by to check on the house.

"The neighbour came to me and told me there was a bad smell and he had not seen Dr Lim for two weeks," he said.

"I opened the door and was shocked to find dogs and rubbish everywhere.

"She turned my house into a dog shelter and abandoned them."

BROKEN

Mr Goh said he had spent about RM100,000 (S$38,000) on renovations before renting it out to her and was dismayed to find almost everything broken.

He said: "The cabinets, the lights - they were all broken from the dogs jumping all over the place."

Once he got over his shock, Mr Goh went out and bought 30kg of dog food to feed the starving dogs.

He said he is not a dog lover, but could not bear to see the dogs die.

"I feel sad for the dogs. I couldn't just let them die," he said.

"These are lives. I cannot let something die for no reason."

He then called non-profit organisation Homeless and Orphan Pets Exist (Hope) in Malaysia for help to rescue the dogs.

On Thursday, the shelter's volunteers and animal lovers rescued 24 of the dogs.

Hope's Facebook page stated that two of the dogs were dead by the time they got to them and that the dogs had been starved for at least two weeks.

The shelter has also asked for donations to pay for the dogs' treatment.

Mr Goh said: "If I didn't check the house when I did, and instead checked after Chinese New Year, the dogs would surely have all died."

He said cannot understand how Dr Lim could have left the dogs behind to die.

"She is a vet. She is supposedly an animal lover. She could have called so many different people for help," he said.

"But instead, she chose to abandon them there.

"I just cannot understand how a doctor can see a patient dying yet do nothing to help."

This article was first published on February 17, 2015.
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