MY PAPER MONDAY OCTOBER 5, 2009
TWENTY people each walked away with a $100 pet-shop voucher yesterday, simply for having adopted an abandoned animal and taken good care of it.
After having been monitored for half a year, they became the first batch of recipients in a new scheme called the Pet Adoption Bonus Scheme Award.
This initiative was started by Pet Lovers Foundation, a new non-profit organisation for pets, which aims to reduce animal abandonment and to help abandoned animals find new homes.
The foundation was set up by pet-food and accessory retail chain Pet Lovers Centre, and was launched on World Animal Day yesterday.
The organisation’s spokesman said that pet abuse and abandonment are still rampant.
Since it was started in 1973, Pet Lovers Centre has donated to charities and the creation of the foundation furthers its efforts to aid the animal community, said the spokesman.
The foundation is working with Action for Singapore Dogs, which runs a dog shelter, to train abandoned dogs to become search-and-rescue dogs or guide dogs for the blind, or those with other disabilities or mental conditions.
Professional trainers have already identified the first batch of five dogs. Training will be completed in about six months’ time.
At yesterday’s event, pet owners and members of the public were invited to pledge against impulse buys and pet abandonment in favour of adoption.
Cat artist Paul Koh held a charity sale of T-shirts, printed with his paintings, there.
– SIA LING XIN
