Local mosque chairman denies being neighborhood dog killer

*WARNING: SOME READERS MAY FIND THE IMAGES BELOW UPSETTING*

Images pertaining to a spat of what appear to be intentional dog poisoning cases in the Lavender Heights area of Seremban have gone viral, and now a nearby mosque chairman has found himself embroiled in the matter, after several individuals named him as the guilty party.

Mohd Asna Amin has strenuously denied having any role in killing five neighborhood dogs, saying that he is not the “dog killer” that some have accused him of being on social media, including a nearby residents’ WhatsApp group.

The images have been shared tens of thousands of times via Facebook since the beginning of the new year, when several dogs appeared on the roadside, dead after having eaten what authorities believe was food laced with rat poison. While four of the dogs were believed to have been strays, one of the dead canines had an owner. Several individuals have since filed police reports on the matter, citing animal cruelty.

At a local residents meeting last night, Mohd Asna again denied having anything to do with the deaths, telling those present that the bodies were found over 1 km away from the Ibn Khaldun Mosque compound. He has suggested that perhaps individuals acted independently in killing the pups.

Police have since seized his phone, with the chairman adding that while he has several photos of neighborhood strays on it, they have nothing to do with the recent dog deaths.

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Some of Malaysia’s Muslim population have a contentious relationship with dogs, with a portion of individuals seeing dogs as unclean. However, many scholars point to early Islamic literature characterizing dogs as symbols of self-sacrifice and loyalty.

One would certainly be hard-pressed to find justification for animal cruelty, and many Muslims have denounced the recent killings as inhumane, un-Islamic, and criminal in nature.