The Electric New Paper :
STRAY ANIMALS & ABANDONED PETS
Ugly fights over helpless strays
24 June 2010
ONE recent evening, I received a distressing SMS from a friend in Tampines.
As she was waiting for a few cats in the community (all neutered) to finish the food she had laid out for them so that she could clear the leftovers, a man and a young boy walked by.
The boy stamped his feet at the cats, while the man started to scold my friend for feeding them. This escalated into verbal abuse, where the man threatened to get the town council to get rid of the animals.
The police were called and he admitted to the officer that he hated cats.
Like my friend in Tampines, I, too, am a caregiver to cats in my neighbourhood.
People who dislike cats blame their presence on cat lovers such as my friend and I.
With alarming incidents of cat abuse - a limping kitten with its ear stapled spotted in Yishun and a man who was seen repeatedly kicking a cat at a Commonwealth Close carpark because 'the cat scared my wife and kid' - why would we cat lovers want MORE cats?
In fact, we want FEWER cats, and we are putting in our effort, time and money to achieve this through a humane and effective way - sterilisation.
Cats bearing a left 'tipped ear' (a horizontal surgical cut carried out when the animal is anaesthetised for neutering) can be seen all around Singapore. This is the result of active citizenry.
Repeated appeals to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) to assist caregivers with free sterilisation of these animals have fallen on deaf ears.
Yet the AVA continues to offer free killing of the creatures caught in traps loaned to private property owners.
Once more, I appeal to the AVA to open their veterinary facilities for people to bring in community cats for sterilisation.
Both cat haters and cat lovers will be pleased with a faster reduction in the number of these animals on the streets.
READER TAN CHEK WEE
