Foul!

As published in Malay Mail today. MY name is Fluffy Singh. Contrary to popular belief, my diet does not comprise of chapati or ghee, although I do enjoy the occasional yogurt. I will turn six come January 13. That’s 42 human years. People refer to me as a Golden Retriever but I don’t really care. I’m not ‘racist’. Regardless of my breed, colour or size, I am a dog. Period. But this is not about me. It is about my fellow four-legged furry friends and other animals out there. Humans have a wide range of vocabulary when referring to us – from “so cute” to “get lost”. We are treated like second, no wait, third class citizens. The laws remain unfair. No one fights for our rights but for a small section of the society. Their voices too remain unheard most of the time. Some of you claim to sympathise with us by being vocal on Facebook or Twitter. But you quickly move on. As they say, barking dogs never bite. It is difficult for us to pen our ...

As published in The Malay Mail today. It appears that a blind person with a guide dog cannot use public transportation. Worse, in an exercise by Malay Mail to test public response to man and guide dog, Stevens Chan and Lashawn — Malaysia's first and only guide dog — were chased out of a mall. We relate the experiences of our reporters and visually impaired Chan. Being visually impaired and going for a walk in the mall isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do. However, with guide dog Lashawn leading his master Stevens Chan, navigation becomes much less of a problem. I (KC Tan) was assigned to observe my blindfolded colleague Calvin Khong who was led around at an apartment complex in a Malay Mail exercise to promote Chan's Dogs for Sight campaign. As Malaysia’s only guide dog for the blind, the sight of Lashawn leading his master is not the most common thing one experiences. However, residents of the Desa Saujana apartment in Seri Kembangan have taken notice of ...