Blogger Says This Is The "Truth" About MIAR President Who Rescued Dogs From Uncle Lee
A blogpost published on 4 January 2015 exposes what is said to be the truth behind dog rescuer Puspa Rani, and how she allegedly raided a house to rescue abused dogs from a puppy mill. Here's a deep dive into the case.
By Darian Goh — 05 Jan 2015, 04:53 PM — Updated over 9 years ago
In the middle of December 2014, local media ran a story on how almost 100 animals were rescued from an alleged dog abuser and breeder in Subang
The raid was conducted by Puspa Rani, the president of the animal rights group Malaysia Independent Animal Rescue (MIAR) together with other authorities. She claimed that this was one of the “biggest and worst cases of animal abuse” in Malaysia.
Members of Malaysia Independent Animal Rescue (MIAR), wildlife authorities Perhilitan and the Veterinary Services Department saved 31 emaciated and sick dogs of various breeds yesterday from what is now being described as one of the “biggest and worst cases of animal abuse” in the country.
“This is the biggest and worst case I have dealt with because there are so many animals involved,” said president of the animal rights group Puspa Rani. “I have seen illegal breeders with around 20 dogs or so. But I’ve never heard of one of this scale,” she said, adding that she was “shocked” and “devastated” to see so many animals in poor condition.
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The house in question belonged to a Mr Lee, a 52-year old mechanic who lived with his wife and his 3-year-old daughter
Lee, or Uncle Lee, as he is fondly known, claimed Puspa had introduced herself as a veterinarian and he was under the impression that she had offered to put his dogs in a shelter with better facilities.“I was happy as it meant that the dogs under my care, more than 80 of them, will have a better life. “I let them in and my wife took care of them as I had to go out,” he claimed at a press conference today.
therakyatpost.com
On 4 January, a blog post written by Carol Ng, a dog lover, made rounds on social media with evidence claiming that Puspa Rani's allegations on the dog breeder was grossly exaggerated or falsified so she could pursue her own hidden agenda
Ng, an auditor with a global provider of technical, safety and certification services, also alleged there were falsified evidence in news reports and exaggerated claims of bad conditions.
therakyatpost.com
A few days before the raid, a member of the Facebook group Dog Lovers of Malaysia posted pictures of Mr Lee's place, indicating that he might be a dog breeder. The group invited people to investigate if the conditions in the photos were true.
"For me, it started when someone posted photos of Mr. Lee's place on a Facebook group called 'Dog Lovers of Malaysia' 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."
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A screenshot of Carol Ng's conversation before they went to investigate Mr Lee's house.
Image via Read in Red.blogspotScreenshot above added on 7 January 2014
At today’s press conference, Carol Ng, a dog lover who is not related to Lee, was present to testify on behalf of him. Ng said she had visited the place a day prior to the raid, after being invited by a group of Facebook friends.
therakyatpost.com
Carol heeded the call to visit Mr Lee's house, expecting to see the horrible conditions depicted in the photo. However, she was surprised to see the dogs happy and well-fed with no signs of abuse.
"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."
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"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 indeed really dirty and messy because he's a mechanic and there were various automotive parts and car beings repaired, so stuff was strewn 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."
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A few days later, Mr Lee's house was raided. Carol was shocked to see Puspa making claims that Mr Lee was a cruel man and that the place was a puppy mill, contrary to what she had seen with her own eyes.
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 (Mr Lee) 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.
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Carol responded to Puspa Rani's allegations with her own evidence. These were the 3 main claims made:
"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."
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1. Three days before the raid on 14 December 2014, Puspa claimed that the dogs had been suffering. Carol questioned where did she get confirmation, and if so from whom?
2. On the MIAR page, there was an appeal for donations after claims that the dogs ate their own faeces out of hunger. This was contrary to what Carol had seen and therefore requested for evidence. Carol provided photo evidence of packets of dog food she saw on her visit.
3. Puspa stated that the house was a puppy mill. This was debunked by Carol, who claimed that in order to have a puppy mill, there has to be pregnant dogs. In Mr Lee's place, there was only one pregnant poodle and no nursing dogs. She also stated one of the tell-tale signs of overbred dogs were saggy breasts, which were not found.
In a video made by Free Malaysia Today, a screenshot provided by MIAR showed a dog with saggy breasts. However, Carol provided evidence that the photo was taken on 11 August 2014, months before the raid.
Besides that, typical puppy mills are cramped with many dogs in a cage. This is not the case with Mr Lee's dogs.
To further strengthen her argument, Carol stated that a dog breeder would not take in mongrels because they are worthless. Mr Lee's house had plenty of them.
Carol raised some interesting questions: When the raid was conducted, Puspa took with her 31 dogs, most of which were poodles. Carol asked if she were a champion for dogs, why did she leave the other dogs behind?
The legality of the raid was also questioned. Although a police report was lodged, there were no search warrant.
Lee Kong Lai, 52, claimed the action of Malaysia Independent Animal Rescue (MIAR) in taking away 31 of his dogs was unjustified and illegal.
therakyatpost.com
Lee had since lodged a police report over the matter, as he had also doubted the legality of such a raid in the first place. “She showed me a police report during the raid, but I was not given the chance to read it. I was later told that a police report is not equivalent to a search warrant. “The police present during the raid did nothing. It was Puspa who took the dogs,” he alleged.
therakyatpost.com
“Later on, I was shocked to read the news which depicted me as an animal abuser who had been keeping the dogs in foul-smelling, unkempt cages,” he said, adding that he was astonished Puspa had allegedly said bad things behind his back.
therakyatpost.com
"Alright, maybe this could have been a big misunderstanding. It could just be a slight overreaction from Puspa when she made the post."
Though that may be true, the fact that Puspa Rani had previously been accused by her ex-committee members for misusing MIAR's shelter funds for her personal use raises eyebrows
With some RM400,000 of funds being unaccounted for, a group of former Malaysia Independent Animal Rescue (MIAR) committee members have also put the blame on its president, Puspa Rani, for alleged negligence on “missing” shelter dogs during the Kajang floods on Dec 20, 2014.
MIAR former treasurer Debra Sharmaine Nathan said their reports to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) had led the government body to mull on deregistering MIAR on Dec 18, based on a letter received dated Nov 18, 2014.
therakyatpost.com
“We have evidence that Puspa had misappropriated RM393,300 of the NGO’s funds, which we believe she had used for her personal use since 2012,” Debra alleged. Debra claimed this was found based on the bank statements issued by the bank and that the NGO’s accounts were not submitted to RoS as per its requirements. “Based on the bank statements after the NGO’s account was frozen following our police reports, we discovered that from October 2013 to December 2013 alone she had taken out cash cheques amounting to RM118,500,” she alleged.
therakyatpost.com
“We have evidence in the form of documents revealing withdrawals Puspa had made from the NGO’s bank account. “She even forged my signature after I had tendered in my resignation in December 2013,” the former treasurer alleged, explaining that the alleged mismanagement of MIAR on Puspa’s part and misappropriation was among the reasons the former volunteer chose to quit the NGO.
therakyatpost.com
Shortly after the raid, a flash flood hit Puspa Rani's shelter, which caused an unaccounted number of dogs to go missing, a few of which could have been Mr Lee's dogs.
Lee is anxious to know the condition of the confiscated dogs, as it was reported that the MIAR shelter in Kajang was inundated in a flash flood days later, drowning an undetermined number of dogs.
therakyatpost.com
In addition to that, her ex-committee members have said that with the large amount of money, she could have upgraded the facilities or moved the dogs to a better shelter
“I do believe the amount of funds misappropriated could be higher and these funds could be used to upgrade the facilities at the shelter or relocate the Kajang shelter, which would have prevented more than 40 dogs going ‘missing’,” Debra claimed to The Rakyat Post. Puspa had on Dec 20 claimed that 40 dogs had gone missing, with some having drowned following seven-feet-high floods which hit the shelter after a downpour. Debra added that the group had lodged 10 police reports against Puspa on this, with the treasurer post still vacant a year after her resignation.
therakyatpost.com
When questioned, Puspa claimed that her critics are only jealous of her and demanded proof that she has embezzled money from the bank account
Meanwhile, Puspa rubbished the claims made by the group and said it was done out of jealousy.
“They don’t have proof and they are liars. Ask them to reveal the proof,” she said, when contacted by The Rakyat Post. The animal rescue activist explained that a Facebook page, “Malaysia Independent Animal Rescue — The Truth” had also been set up to take revenge on her and tarnish her image. “Rumours will only hurt my dogs and these people are jealous of the work that I have done.”
therakyatpost.com
Furthermore, Puspa has come out to reassure that Mr Lee's dogs are still alive according to a statement on Sin Chew Daily that was published 2 weeks after the flood occurred
But supporters of Mr Lee are not convinced. They want evidence that they are alive and not replaced by any other dogs.
7 January: According to her new blog post, she explained that she used to be a follower of Puspa before the case. She provided evidence of her conversation with another dog lover before they went to investigate Mr Lee's house.
Excerpt added on 7 January 2014:
For the detractors/PR bootlickers who would love to believe I've been bias against Puspa for a long time, as well as those on the fence because you don't trust that I really was initially neutral on the case, allow me to clarify again, with evidence, that up until just last month when I got caught up in Uncle Lee's case, I was a follower of Puspa and believed she was doing good work. On the other hand, when I first heard of the suspected cruel dog breeder, I was as pissed at him on seeing the conditions of his place and dogs through photos, as most people were when the news of the 'biggest and worst puppy mill busted by Puspa' came out. So actually, I wasn't neutral at all, I had already judged Uncle Lee based on the little I knew through the few photos taken.
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And as you all can tell, I'm one who likes to back up my claims with evidence, so here it is. As explained before, how I got involved was when a lady posted on a Facebook group for dog lovers asking for people to investigate this suspected cruel dog breeder. She mentioned that her friend has gone once to his place and ask if they could help reduce his burden by taking some puppies he had, although she did not mention how many puppies her friend saw, so I can only presume this was referring to the 4 puppies mentioned in my video. She said according to her friend, the 'breeder' agreed to let us take the puppies. I had no intention to take any dogs or puppies and just wanted to investigate.
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She went on to explain that through her screenshots and conversation, it was clear that she did not know Uncle Lee before this and only wants justice for him after false accusations were made against him.
Excerpts below added on 7 January 2014
So what does all this prove?
1) I had no connection to Uncle Lee before the case. That would make me a good neutral witness to the conditions of his place, although as explained earlier I was already expecting to see all the evidence that he's a cruel breeder, which is not neutral at all.
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2) For anyone questioning what I have done in terms of rescuing dogs (coz' Puspa's hero worshippers think no one else is as great as her), this goes to show I was doing exactly what she's been telling people to do... Getting out there and doing the work instead of keyboard warrior-ing away bugging MIAR to go everything. So Puspa should be loving me for doing what she always tells people to do! :-) Of course, this question about what I've done in terms of rescuing animals is nothing more than a rather lame attempt to divert attention away Puspa and make me look less credible. I'm not here to blabber about my dog rescuing credentials, but if you'd like to know, you can ask Dog Lovers from Malaysia group on Facebook and the long - time members there can tell you how annoyingly preachy I can get when it comes to rescuing dogs.
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3) Lee was willing to give up his dogs for adoption, in case you were wondering why he seems to only rescue and does not give away dogs. The main reason why he does not get many adopters is because he doesn't know how to use a computer well, so people only came to him through word of mouth.
So if you want to accuse me of being bias, yes, I was bias. I was bias initially towards Uncle Lee, not to Puspa. And all that changed because the evidence against her claims on him was too much to ignore. And that's how I became his best defense against Puspa.
What do I have to gain from doing all this? Uncle Lee is obviously poor, he can't give me anything except dogs, which I already have enough of. The only thing I hope to gain is justice for this defamed uncle, but more importantly justice for the dogs used for someone's personal benefit.
So those of you hum hawing about wanting to be neutral coz' you don't trust my side of the story, perhaps this will be convince you a little better. And to the ever stubborn detractors/PR bootlickers, you can continue being silly, coz' your attempts to shoot me down are always amusing and I like a little comedy in my life.
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The case is still plagued with questions as investigations are ongoing: What was Mr Lee doing with a gibbon and so many dogs? Are allegations of MIAR's negligence and embezzlement true? Is Carol Ng speaking the truth?
SAYS has reached out to Puspa Rani via email for official statements and await her reply.
If you have any information or updates to this story, drop us an email at [email protected] or message SAYS on Facebook