Today Online 19 Jan 07
Killing strays is not an act of kindness
Letter from Fiona Yuen
I agree with the letter writer of "A mayor's pet lesson for us" (Jan 16).
The town councils, Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) should learn from Albuquerque's Mayor Martin Chavez and the Canadian authorities.
Whenever there are complaints about stray cats or dogs, town councils call the pest controllers to round up every cat or dog in the area and send them to AVA to be killed.
But this does not solve the problem, and only results in a waste of taxpayers' money and the animals' lives. Sometimes, injured or poisoned animals escape to die slow and painful deaths. How is this humane?
And yet AVA promotes kindness to animals.
AVA should guide town councils to work with welfare organisations such as the Cat Welfare Society to sterilise the strays and provide feeding shelters.
If Albuquerque can reduce the number of animals it puts to sleep and increase the number adopted, I don't understand why the SPCA has to kill more than 90 per cent of the animals it receives.
I find it touching that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper helps make feral kittens adoptable. Why can't we show a bit more empathy to animals too?
Animals may not have an economic value, but that does not mean their lives are worthless.
