Dogged do-gooder
Man’s best friend finds an ally in a woman who does wonders for animal welfare.
PETALING JAYA: In 1990, Christine Chin-Radford walked into Society for the Prevention oof Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Sellangor, determined to make a difference before her 30thh birthday. After lookinng at the accounts, thee then stockbroker was ddismayed by the severe llack of financial viabilitty that hampered the ccentre’s staffing abilitiees.
“I decidded I was going to ccome in as a weekendd volunteer and slowwly try to fundraisee, so that we can hire ggood people along the wway,” said Chin, 56.
Thee strongwillled Hakka wwoman would pprove to be aan unstoppabble force. “I poked mmy nose into eeverything. I ddonated my oown money too get things ggoing.”
She became cchairman of SSPCA SSelangor in 2004.
The NGO’s resort-like headquar-h teers, designed by faamed archi- tect Hijjas Kasturi, is a testament to her vision; volunteers bustled about the art-filled space, while visiting students traipsed through the lush green grounds and animals frolicked.
Chin, who remains grateful to every donor and volunteer who contributed towards creating the space to care for animals and provide humane education, said that those hoping to work in the same field must be “crazy in love with animals”.
“If you’re not, then you’ll find the smallest things irritating and mundane. You must have emotional strength because you will see a lot of pain and a lot of death,” she said.
Though she recommended a rational and balanced approach to volunteer work, Chin admitted that she had to “work like hell” in driving the NGO’s approach to animal advocacy, such as lobbying the Government to get involved in ground-level issues.
Chin had always favoured a hands-on approach; her fondness for canine friends had led her to adopt over 90 dogs of her own.
“Some dogs here don’t get adopted because they are not very young, or not pretty enough. And I feel very sad, so I bring them in. But once I take them in, they become very cute!” Chin said, sharing that she could remember each dog’s name and unique personality.
The dogs, which are all spayed and neutered, live on a large plot of land where they are cared for by workers who stay on-site.
However, Chin was well aware that this was her indulgence of a lifelong dream as a dog-lover, and not a permanent solution for the problem of strays.
Therefore, the SPCA-led Stray Free Selangor programme is working towards curbing stray populations in a humane, effective and sustainable manner.
“It helps that our royal patron, Tengku Permaisuri Selangor Tengku Permaisuri Norashikin, is helping to promote this to a higher level,” she said.
The current catch-and-kill method employed by municipal councils creates a vacuum every time an area is cleared of stray dogs, causing new strays to inhabit them and continue the vicious cycle.
Thus, the NGO will approach municipal councils to change their mindsets, and even give out annual awards to those who make the most progress towards a Stray-Free Selangor, the humane way.
The NGO will also focus on longterm humane education that teaches local communities about responsible pet-ownership and the need to spay-neuter, among other areas.
“It’s a multi-year programme. We cannot expect changes overnight,” said Chin, who also looks forward to the creation of caring and compassionate communities where animals can enjoy a good quality of life.
As for the future of animal rights in Malaysia, she hopes to see more people adopt a cruelty-free way of life: “Over 50 billion farm animals are killed every year for food, imagine the misery behind it.”
Cruelty-free living can be practised in many ways, such as moderating personal meat intake, or making better purchasing decisions, such as choosing canvas bags over leather goods.
She’s confident that this would gain ground, as Malaysians are “very kind people and very giving.”
“In SPCA, I sometimes see people who can hardly feed themselves but they feed their stray dogs and cats first. We always want to help them out.
“I hope to see more people come and help, as it only takes a little bit of time and effort,” she said.