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A Malaysian animal shelter called A Pet's Journal (APJ) has been accused by netizens for running a scam, with concerned netizens setting up a Facebook group named A Pet's Journal Scam (APJ Scam) to expose "the dirt" on APJ.

The APJ Scam group also alleged that APJ is connected to other pages that claim to be dog shelters, such as Erlang's Dogs, Quan Shelter, and Shui Fen Dogs.

Previously, the alleged plight of the man taking care of the abandoned animals at Erlang's Dogs were picked up by several media outlets, including Mothership.

All four Facebook pages along with APJ's Instagram account appear to have been deactivated at the time of writing, though APJ's website, where they sell pet food, appears to be active.

Members of the group have accused APJ of profiteering off the donations from the public, while another netizen pointed out that images of their supporters and volunteers appear to have been edited.

Since APJ Scam was set up on Facebook Sep. 13, over 1,200 users have joined the group in a matter of days.

APJ owners allegedly paid a pet shop owned by them

A social media user named Mukunan Thambisamy alleged that the funds raised by APJ and their affiliated page, Erlang's Dogs, went into a pet shop that is owned by APJ's owner.

"So they have been raising funds to pay themselves?" Mukunan wrote.

He further alleged that it was a "new marketing strategy" for APJ to sell their products and make money "on the side".

Mukunan's post on APJ's page has since been removed, but netizens have uploaded screenshots of his post.

Another netizen also posted screenshots of the business registration that was "Erlang's Dogs", which was allegedly connected to APJ. Rather than a non-governmental organisation, the netizen pointed out that it was actually registered as a business entity under the registry of the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM).

One of APJ owners registered under five businesses

Meanwhile, a netizen called Darshini posted on a police report she made on the matter, and urged other members in the "APJ Scam" group to report the scam to the authorities.

Documents that Darshini shared also show that one of the alleged owners of APJ had registered her name under five different business entities.

Four of those had the word "pets" in the name of their company, while the fifth one was called "Chun Guan Rescue Dogs".

APJ denied the allegations

Meanwhile, APJ had denied the scam allegations brought forward by netizens, before their page was found to have been deactivated.

APJ had denied using the donations they received from the public for their personal gains.

APJ also appeared to deny allegations that they used the money collected from donations to purchase a new pet shop.

APJ added that they bought over the pet shop using money out of their own pockets in order to house their "rescue dogs" legally under the licence of the pet shop.

According to their post, the authorities pressured to "evacuate" their dogs from their original premises, which prompted them to "rent four premises with operational licence(s)" to house some 150 dogs.

APJ further stated that they could not disclose their location for fear of people dumping dogs at their premises.

They also mentioned that they channelled "a huge part" of their savings to the dogs' expenses, as there were times when donations to the shelter fell short.

APJ said will hand dogs to authorities if allegations escalate

Before concluding the post, APJ stated that they would release all their dogs to local authorities should the allegations against them continue to escalate.

Netizens perceived the concluding remark from APJ to be a "threat", while a commenter said it would be a "death penalty" to the dogs, as the authorities might choose to put them down.

Meanwhile, another commenter pointed out that APJ did not clarify their alleged affiliation to the other three pages.

Pet adoption centre airs suspicion

A pet adoption centre called "My Pets Haven (MPH)" took to Instagram to share that APJ had refused to disclose their location, and did not allow them to visit despite picking up three dogs from them.

MPH pointed out their suspicion towards APJ's claim about a lack of funds, as well as their continued calls for donations "every month",  even after gaining "so much exposure" from Malaysian media outlets, which should have helped raise the funds needed.

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Top image via A Pet's Journal/Facebook & Ruby Room/Facebook