IAPWA Sabah stops cooperation with UK counterpart
KOTA KINABALU: Independent Aid for Protection and Welfare of Animals (IAPWA) Sabah said it has stopped working with the United Kingdom chapter (IAPWA UK).
President of the Malaysian-registered society, Limuel Estrop, said this is due to IAPWA UK’s alleged interference in local matters and their ongoing negotiations with Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK).
According to him, IAPWA UK had bypassed IAPWA Sabah on the negotiations as a locally registered and based association.
“IAPWA UK is a UK charity that was set up to raise funds there, to neuter street dogs here in KK.
“In 2014, IAPWA UK suddenly announced that the UK was signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to operate the DBKK dog pound.
“This came after IAPWA UK had previously funded local society SPCAKK (Society for The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Kota Kinabalu) to neuter street dogs, with SPCA being in an MoU negotiation for this with DBKK at the time.
“The UK charity was solely based in the UK, was not legally registered in Malaysia and had no experience in this area of work.
It is hard to understand why this was allowed,” Limuel said.
He also claimed that IAPWA UK had forced IAPWA Sabah to follow all its instructions, upon expiration of the initial MoU between IAPWA UK and DBKK.
Limuel said the instructions included allowing a person employed by IAPWA UK (supposedly a United States resident) to manage the project remotely, directly instruct the staff and manage and control the committee and the society.
“This is illegal under Malaysian Society Law, as well as UK Charity Law. IAPWA Sabah wrote back to explain we could not break Malaysian Society Law.
“The IAPWA UK ignored the three response letters we sent and stopped the four-year funding agreement without any warning or communication,” Limuel lamented.
He further claimed that IAPWA Sabah had visited DBKK and the mayor to explain the situation, and had written to DBKK via a solicitor several times. However, their efforts were met with silence.
Despite the current situation, Limuel affirmed that IAPWA Sabah is still passionate about making a difference to the lives of stray dogs and cats in Sabah.
He said they were rebuilding the work they did and had set up a new Facebook page: IAPWA Sabah.
Meanwhile, DBKK when contacted said that they were still in the process of ironing out details pertaining to the suggestion by IAPWA to proceed with the MoU. It also said IAPWA Sabah had mooted the same suggestion.
“DBKK does not prevent any party including NGOs that wish to handle the problem of stray dogs in the city area.
However, DBKK facilities are limited. Hence, DBKK encourages any party or NGO with resources to prepare their own facilities and conduct fostering and protection programmes for abandoned dogs, provided the activities are conducted via the proper channels,” DBKK said in a statement.
The statement also said that the mayor and IAPWA had signed the MoU on April 28, 2014, which had ended on July 9, 2019.
The statement was issued by DBKK Legal Department director Rosnah Datu Tumai.