A lady called the town council to complain about a "noisy" cat along the common corridor. She just moved into this block of flat and she has to walk one storey down to this common corridor to take the lift at the centre of the block. She said the cat frightened her two daughters as well. She also complained, "By the way, there are 'a lot' of cats along the walkway towards to the market."
Caregivers in the precinct were notified by the Senior Property Officer. They discovered that the "noisy" cat was a neutered tabby cat that was lured upstairs by an elderly lady who provided food at her doorsteps. The "noise" was the meow-meow of cats. When the caregivers appealed to the elderly lady to feed downstairs, her son came to the door and angrily said that his mother has been taking care of this cat for many years and there has never been any complaint. He said that the town council could go ahead and kill this cat but he and his family would curse the complainant whenever she passed by their flat!
The cats in the precinct were also all neutered and in fact there has been a reduction in the number of cats. There certainly wasn't "a lot" of cats!
Irresponsible feeding of cats upstairs can be averted if HDB removes the ban on cats and put in place, regulations and definition of what constitutes a home-cat. Taking care of cats within one's property that includes feeding at the doorsteps, can be defined as ownership of the cats and hence within one's responsibility to keep the cats indoor.
The town council officers should also learn to recognise AILUROPHOBIA and give appropriate advice, insteading of pandering to them by culling/killing the cats.
There are people who are afraid of children - pedophobia. What if such a phobic person call the town council to complain about this "noisy" kid?
