A dog attack that left a young girl named Nur Haira in an induced coma after being set upon by five stray dogs near her grandmother’s home in Johor has reignited a familiar and deeply divided conversation in Malaysia, and this time a celebrity preacher stepped into it and made it louder.
What PU Riz said
Haris Ismail better known as PU Riz and the husband of celebrity Neelofa posted on Threads that he personally believes members of the public in Malaysia should no longer be allowed to keep dogs.
He cited religious guidance as the basis for his view, noting that the school of Islamic jurisprudence he follows sets very strict conditions on keeping dogs and that city dwellers have no practical need for them for purposes such as guarding farm
“If it is not too much to ask, members of the public in Malaysia should no longer be allowed to keep dogs,” he wrote. “This is also in line with religious guidance. Our school of Islamic jurisprudence places very strict limits on keeping dogs, and those living in cities generally do not need them for purposes such as guarding farms.”
He added that he was heartbroken by incidents of people being bitten, with some victims coming close to losing their lives and said he personally did not feel comfortable around dogs whether they were strays or pets kept by his non-Muslim neighbours.
He acknowledged that others might disagree and described the post as his personal opinion.
Where the pushback came from
The response from those who disagreed was swift and came from multiple directions.
Some commenters on Threads felt PU Riz had not addressed the more pressing issue: animal cruelty and irresponsible pet ownership.
Others pushed back on the framing of the religious argument, pointing out that Islam also holds a strong obligation of mercy toward all living creatures and that causing harm to any animal is considered a serious transgression.
The Shafi’i school of thought that most Malaysian Muslims follow discourages dogs as indoor pets but explicitly permits them for guarding property, farms and livestock the same point PU Riz himself acknowledged before concluding that city dwellers had no need for them.
Why Does Malaysia Still Have No Strict Regulations on pet owners?
As reported by The Rakyat Post, several commenters argued that the debate about whether people should be allowed to keep dogs was distracting from the more concrete question of why Malaysia still has no mandatory microchipping, licensing or registration system for pet owners.
One Threads user made the case that compulsory pet registration with an annual licence fee would allow abandoned animals to be traced back to their owners, fund sterilisation programmes and animal shelters and support responsible breeding practices.
Without a centralised system, there is currently no way to hold irresponsible owners accountable when their pets or former pets end up as strays.
Animal welfare advocates consistently point to the same root causes behind Malaysia’s stray crisis: unsterilised pets roaming free, unregulated backyard breeding, and owners abandoning animals with zero legal consequences.
Malaysia already has the Animal Welfare Act 2015, which allows fines of up to RM100,000 and up to three years in prison for cruelty or abandonment. The problem is enforcement, which falls to individual local councils, most of which still rely on catch-and-cull operations, a method that has never been shown to reduce stray populations in any sustained way.
Experts recommend TNRM, or Trap, Neuter, Return, Manage, as a more effective long-term approach, since sterilising strays stabilises populations and reduces aggression over time.
Nur Haira’s attack is a genuine tragedy and her family’s pain is real. But as TRP noted, it is also a symptom of a system that has been patched repeatedly rather than fixed. The debate PU Riz’s post set off is one Malaysia keeps having. The conversation it keeps not having is about why the infrastructure to actually solve the problem has never been built.
Submit your story to ym.efillaerni@olleh and you may be featured on In Real Life Malaysia.
Read also: ‘I gave up my family to pursue my dreams’ Shares 34 YO M’sian woman – In Real Life
https://inreallife.my/i-gave-up-my-family-to-pursue-my-dreams-shares-34-yo-msian-woman/
‘I gave up my family to pursue my dreams’ Shares 34 YO M’sian woman
More from Community
“Not an Official Decision,” Fahmi Says on the 200K worker, Bangladeshi minister’s claim
On August 30, a Bangladeshi junior minister announced that Malaysia would recruit 200,000 workers from Bangladesh over six months, starting …
“Send Them Where?” asks PM Anwar Ibrahim over Malaysia’s Rohingya dilemma
On July 27, more than a hundred Rohingya refugees arrived in Kuala Lumpur, having left a settlement in Kampung Kuala …
“RM1,700 vs RM11,500” The Wage Gap Dividing Malaysia’s Formal Workers
In March 2026, the top 10% of Malaysian formal employees took home at least RM11,500 a month. The bottom 10% …
