Man's inhumanity to Animals..

Its not just man's inhumanity to man....

Villagers in Malaysia drove their local canines to cannibalism when they rounded up more than 300 stray dogs and left them to fend for themselves on a mangrove island.

Residents of a fishing village on Pulau Ketam, an island off Malaysia's western Selangor state, caught the dogs last month and took them to Pulau Tengah island, a small, uninhabited island nearby.

The villagers said they never intended to be cruel — they believed the dogs could feed on Pulau Tengah's wildlife — but wanted to rid their island of dogs that defecate on the streets and sometimes bite children.

However, after weeks of starvation, the dogs were driven to cannibalism, according to animal welfare activists.

The plight of the cast away canine cannibals ignited outrage this week after activists released photographs showing some of the dogs eating the carcasses of others that had died.

Pulau Ketam's residents have said some dogs tried to swim back to their island, about a half-hour boat ride away, but it was not clear how many succeeded.

A team from the Selangor Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals visited Pulau Tengah on Monday and saw several emaciated dogs “crowded and hunched around something — they were hungrily feasting on the remains of another dog,” the SPCA said in a statement.

“Nearby, a weak dog was screaming because several dogs were trying to bite her,” it said.

Volunteers have so far rescued two dogs and left food for the others, according to SPCA official Jacinta Johnson. They estimate 200 might have survived.

Efforts to save the dogs have been slow because many were now fearful of people and scampered into mangrove swamps when rescuers approached.

Activists have persuaded Pulau Ketam's villagers not to dump any more dogs and are considering measures such as sterilization and relocation to ease problems posed by an estimated 2,000 stray dogs in the area.

The Times..