Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Making a difference


It's pretty mind boggling that my blog pageviews go from about 50 to over 20,000 in the span of 24 hours. I never thought so many people would have an interest in this case. Which is a big chunk of the battle won because a lot more people would have stopped giving this woman money.

However, the fight is far from over. If the stories from the ex - committee members are true, this woman still has plenty of money to the tune of hundreds of thousands. And it's also been said that she has friends in high places. Otherwise how else would she have gotten police escorting her for a 'raid' then leaving the 'investigation' and removal of 'evidence' to her? It seems she also rubs shoulders with a few people from the Selangor Veterinary Department. They came to Uncle Lee's place today and said they would come to take photos everyday. How many government department people do inspections of a premise every two days unless something is in it for them?

It sickens me because this person might still get away with what she is doing by using money to gain favours. Money that she did not earn, but was donated to her. Money that was supposed to be used to help voiceless, innocent animals. And what's more, she wants to use that money to get an innocent animal loving family into trouble.

I was one person, who could have decided to not bother visiting his place. I could have decided to not follow up after the raid. I could have decided to mind my own business. But I didn't. And now a lot of you know the truth about how she operates. She likes to talk about being a hero, and a lot of people believed in it and showered her with money, thinking it was for a good cause and hence making themselves feel good.



Well, people, it's time to stop the hero worship of others and start believing in yourself. Everyone doing little something to make a difference will make a BIG difference. And if you want to end this woman's nonsense and knowing that some people in our local authorities are all too easily swayed by money, then the only ways to fight back is with public pressure and your own connections.

So here's what you can do:
1) If you made donations and are convinced you were conned, it's your right to make a police report. You'd of course need evidence of your donations made, receipts, bank transfer slips, etc. And if you want evidence to strengthen the validity of your fraud report, well, there is evidence in this blog. Print out those slides and use them.

2) One can also lodge a report for suspected cruelty to animals through negligence. The Kajang river floods regularly and the shelter has been flooded several times before. It is clear no steps were taken to ensure the safety of those dogs, hence negligence. Note that there is no evidence yet which dogs died, Uncle Lee's dogs or her own.  But her statement is that dogs did die,  and those deaths were needless. Even if you don't have evidence of the deaths, the police cannot reject your report.

3) If you have friends in high places, politicians, police, whatever, talk to them and ask for help to push for justice. The best people to fight highly connected people are other highly connected people. I'm betting most of you who donated regularly have lots of money, and that usually comes with connections.

A lot of reports and help from people in high places means more pressure for the authorities to act.

And after all that, if you really love the dogs, do your little bit by being pro - active. Most shelters are full and have limited resources. People need to do their part by helping to spay strays in their area to reduce the stray population, or foster a dog, or rescuing an animal in bed instead of posting online and asking others to do it.

Remember, one person doing a little bit can help make a big difference. Are you going to be part of that, or sit back and wait for another 'hero' to show up and fawn over coz you didn't believe your little bit would help?


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Sunday, January 4, 2015

The truth about Puspa Rani vs. the alleged abusive Subang 'dog breeder'

Puspa's Accusations against Mr. Lee

As most of the Malaysian dog loving community in touch with the news may know, sometime last month, there were several news reports that Puspa Rani, president of Malaysian Independant Animal Rescue (MIAR) had conducted a raid on 14 December 2014 on an alleged horrific puppy mill described as the 'biggest and worse case of animal abuse' in the country. Example of one of the reports below from the Star. The news also came out in Free Malaysia Today, Current Buzz and a number of Chinese dailies.


My involvement
I got involved in this case, but in a manner and extent that I did not expect. I had personally visited this same alleged dog breeder's place just one day before Puspa Rani to investigate the place for myself.

For me, it started when someone posted photos of Mr. Lee's place on a Facebook group for dog lovers which I was a member of. The photos showed some pitbulls with bad skin condition and a house with many caged dogs and stated that this was a suspected dog breeder. The lady invited members of the group to join her and some friends to investigate further on this place to see if it was true. The photos looked pretty terrible and so I agreed to join, even jokingly offering to bring along steering wheel lock in case I needed to beat some sense into this horrible breeder.

So I joined this lady and two of her friends to visit this place on 13th December 2014. I was expecting to see obvious evidence of dogs being overbred, typical signs being saggy breasts, many puppies, dogs dying of disease, living in poop, and basically suffering. I was also expecting that the man running the place would be defensive and unwilling to let us see the base camp of his animal torture activities.

What I experienced in reality was that the alleged breeder, Mr. Lee, was a very friendly man who openly invited us in and showed us around. The place was indead really dirty and messy because he's a mechanic and there were various automotive parts and car beings repaired, so stuff was shrewn everything and the house was not clean. And yes, there were many dogs in cages, not to mention a bunch of other animals like birds, cats and even a gibbon. There were several dogs that had skin conditions and were very weak. However, most of the dogs were jumping up and down excitedly when we walked in, and I did not see many of the telltale signs of abuse that are expected of a puppy mill.

I left the place feeling very unsure and thinking that he may not be a breeder after all, but it definitely needed further investigation. I work as an auditor, it's my job to make conclusions based on observations and evidence. So for me the short time I spent there was definitely not enough to make any conclusion, because a lot of I saw was not consistent with what an abusive dog breeder would be. So I was discussing with the group I went with whether we should report him to the authorities or not.

At the time, I have been a regular follower and supporter or Puspa and MIAR on Facebook for several years. The next day on 14 December, I saw news on her timeline that she was going to visit Mr. Lee's place. Initially I thought, great, she should be able to do a much more thorough investigation.

What happened next shocked me. On the same evening, MIAR's Facebook page and reports were splashed all over the news said that this man was an abusive and cruel dog breeder, keeping his dogs in terrible condition...dogs were starving, eating their own poop, sick or dying, puppies were taken from their mothers at young age... all the makings of a horrific puppy mill. The more the news came out, the more I was confused. Confused because it didn't make sense to me how Puspa confirmed all this in such a short time.

At the same time, a lot of negative allegations and rumours were circulating about MIAR from her ex-committee members and ex-volunteers, some of whom I knew personally. There was a Registrar of Societies report made by ex-committee members claiming Puspa is using funds for personal use, including buying drugs, among many others. I also noticed on Facebook that Puspa was asking for donations to a personal account under the name of Tej Rajbanshi instead of MIAR's account, so I tested the waters to see what would happen and posted a comment on MIAR's page asking why Puspa is asking for donations to be made to a personal account. Soon, I found my comment deleted and I was blocked from posting on MIAR's page. Which is when I realized something is not right about what Puspa is doing, talked to a lot of people online and did my own investigation, even going back to Mr. Lee's place to find out more. And I found more evidence to support Uncle Lee's case rather than Puspa's.



Uncle Lee's Conference
Yesterday on 3 January 2014, a press conference was organized at Mr. Lee's place, and I was there to do a presentation on Uncle Lee's side of the story, using the evidence observed and found by myself and a friend of Uncle Lee whom I met with after the news reports. The press conference was attended by several reporters, mainly from the Chinese press and only one representative from the an English Daily. Many other English news reporters were invited, including from the Star, Free Malaysia Today, Malay Mail, and the New Straits Times....but no reporters from these dailies turned up. Interestingly enough, a reporter from the one English Daily who did turn up called me after the Press Conference and told me that his reporters had been THREATENED not to publish any negatives news related to MIAR and that those threats came from none other than Ms. 'Angel' Puspa Rani herself.

To the reporters of this daily, hats off to you for having balls and defying this woman. To all the reporters from the other English dailies who decided to give Mr. Lee's press conference a miss because you were too busy or too easily bulldozed, your loss for missing out on a nice juicy scandalous story to attract readers. Now I have to do your job for you by writing this to make people aware of this con job named Puspa Rani. But that doesn't mean I'm not having fun doing it. :)

My Presentation
Below is the presentation I made to the press on the truth regarding the alleged Subang dog breeders. To all supporters of Puspa Rani who argued that detractors were simply 'jealous' of Puspa's fame, take 12 and a half minutes to see the evidence here of how badly she has taken all of you for a ride.

P.S.: One slide showing the video of Uncle Lee's place is not running properly, and I'm too lazy to figure out how to fix it, so bear with it please :)

P.S.S: The 'visitor' to Uncle Lee's place mentioned in this video is myself. Coz' sometimes I like talking about myself in third person, just like how Puspa likes calling herself an angel on MIAR's page. Falalalala




If you don't have 12 and a half minutes to spare, here's the faster-to-read jpeg version of the presentation, minus the suspense, intriguing mystery music and my weird kiddie-voice narration.

Enjoy!





































Oh yes, to Puspa, when you get round to reading this, I respected you for years and do believe you may have started MIAR with good intentions, but the easy money got the better of you. If you're still thinking about taking Uncle Lee to court, you might want to consider turning over a new leaf and stop hoodwinking people at the expense of the dogs you claim to love. Coz' thanks to all these little trails of careless mistakes you made in your quest for money and glory, you don't have much a strong case going for you. Toodles!


If you'd like to monitor the progress and latest news on Uncle Lee's case, please like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/uncleleesupporters


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