Malaysia: Crow-shooting event in Klang draws netizens' ire

The Star 14 Jun 14;

PETALING JAYA: The Klang Municipal Council (MPK) has come under heavy criticism for organising a crow-shooting event in Klang on Sunday.

A poster of the event put up by MPK has been circulating on the Internet, with many bashing the exercise which they deem as cruel.

Facebook user Dxc Kil questioned the event saying, "What purpose is this event for? Are the crows starting to affect our health/safety/environment? What's the rationale? Or is this just for fun?"

According to the poster, the event will take place from 6am to 7pm and the congregation point will be in front of the Pandamaran Hockey Stadium.

Comments also said there were many crows there as the place was not clean.

"We should stop littering and dumping food which crows eat. This causes more crows to breed, Shooting them is not a solution," said Warren Wu.

When contacted, an MPK officer said the exercise was initiated due to public complaints that there were too many crows around.

The MPK officer also said that a press conference would be held at the hockey stadium at 9am Sunday to explain the exercise to the media.

MPK expects 6000 crows to be shot during event
The Star 15 Jun 14;

KLANG: The Klang Municipal Council (MPK) expects about 6,000 crows to be shot during a crow-shooting event it organised on Sunday.

MPK Corporate and Community Department director Zaireezal Ahmad Zainuddin said the event was held due to complaints from the public on crows.

"The crows dirty the place with their faeces and also rummage the garbage bins," he said adding that the crows often sought refuge at parking lots.

He said besides shooting, MPK manages to catch about 300 crows a month via traps.

"The trapped crows are slaughtered and then packed-up in bags before being buried," he said.

While Zaireelzal admitted that the crows did not directly transmit diseases to humans, they inconvenienced people and were dirty creatures.

He however said that MPK was prepared to listen to ideas and views about other methods of catching crows.

One hundred and fifteen people had registered to participate in the event, which has drawn the ire of many people for being cruel and inhumane.