On July 29, twelve dogs were captured during a council operation in Taman Telok Gedong Indah, Klang. Eleven survived the process. One, a dog named Rocky, did not. The operation involved officers from the Klang Royal City Council, known as MBDK, and a neck loop used during capture. When Rocky's owner tried to intervene, hugging the dog while the loop was still around its neck, the situation turned chaotic.
The Man at the Centre of It
The Rakyat Post reported statements from Muhammad Shah Hizam, the 24-year-old accused of animal cruelty in connection with Rocky's death, who said plainly, "I don't support animal cruelty, let alone have any intention of hurting or killing it." His lawyer added that everyone involved that night had been briefed by MBDK officers beforehand, framing the death as a result of the operation going wrong rather than deliberate harm.
Living Under Threat
The Vibes reported that Shah has faced sustained death threats and public backlash since the video of Rocky's death went viral, to the point where his legal team is now documenting defamatory comments online with a view to pursuing civil and defamation action against individuals and portals that crossed the line from public criticism into targeted threats.
Why the Public Reaction Went This Far
Videos of animals dying during capture operations tend to provoke exactly this kind of response, immediate, visceral, and often directed at whoever is most visible in the footage regardless of their actual role in what happened. That does not make the anger illegitimate. It does mean the person absorbing the brunt of it may not be the person who made the underlying decisions about how the operation was run.
The Owner's Side of It
The Star separately reported comments from Rocky's owner, who said she begged the capture team to stop hitting the dog during the operation, a claim that adds a sharper edge to a case that had, until then, mostly been framed around whether the death was intentional rather than whether excessive force was used at all.
My Opinion
Somewhere between "he meant to kill the dog" and "this was purely an accident" is a more uncomfortable truth: an operation involving a loop around an animal's neck, run by officers who were supposedly briefing participants beforehand, still ended with a dead dog and a chaotic scene. The death threats against one participant do nothing to fix that. They just make sure nobody in this story ends up safe, including the person whose intent still is not entirely clear.
Ronny M (ronny76netstuff@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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