http://www.todayonline.com/Columns/Speakeasy/EDC111127-0000007/Theyre-family,-not-garbageThey're family, not garbage
04:45 AM Nov 27, 2011
By now, almost everyone in Singapore with access to the Internet must have watched the video of a man dumping a cat into a wheelie bin.
It's almost like watching a snuff video, and the worst part is how casually the guy saunters up to the bin, then tips the cat out like it was only some rubbish. It has since emerged that the man may be bipolar and behaving erratically - but, if so, should he have been entrusted with an animal and a young kid in the first place?
The video has gone viral. But the weird thing is, if you look at the comments made by the international community, they're centred on the cat and the trauma it suffered.
If you look at those made by Singaporeans, it's about the fact that a Merc driver did it.
Hello, why are we surprised?
Just because someone can afford to buy a luxury car doesn't mean he has a lot of sense. Does it make the act any less cruel if the guy drove up in a beat-up van instead?
It does say a lot about us as a materialistic society that we judge everything in terms of its worth.
By extension, we see animals as goods to be used and disposed off when we've tired of them. After all, the insurance and legal community consider pets as property, not family.
I used to live in a private condo in the East Coast and, in the four years I was there, there were two cases of cat dumping. In both cases, as they had collars on, they'd obviously been family pets who'd been got rid off after they had outgrown their cuteness.
The first was a kitten which had been abandoned at our main porch without food or water for days. We fed her for a bit before she became the victim of a car accident.
The second one was sent to the SPCA.
It makes my blood boil every time I read yet another Facebook status which says: "We got rid of the cat because the baby's coming/we've moved to a new place and don't want the furniture scratched/it bit the kids."
A pet is not a toy you can give away when you get tired of it or you don't have space for it.
A pet is family.
Let's say your kid goes to kindergarten and bites other kids. You don't send him back to the hospital and say: "I don't want this one; it bites." Or imagine you move to a new place with nice clean walls and your kids paint all over them. Do you leave them out on the streets to fend for themselves?
Animals have emotions too. They can feel, even if they can't talk, and they feel as much of an emotional attachment to their owners as family members do.
Remember Hachiko, the faithful dog who continued waiting at the station for nine years after his owner died?
Just recently too, there was the case of the dog in Panjiatun, China, which has mounted a graveside vigil for his dead owner for more than a week now.
And of course, you read of numerous cases of cats walking impossible distances just to be reunited with their human family.
There is no humane way to dump a pet.
Animals get abandonment issues too and can sometimes starve to death from pining. Can you really enjoy your new baby or pet-free home knowing that you have their blood on your hands?
I have a Singapore "longkang" cat. She's not the sweetest of animals and I have the scars to prove that. But I made a promise 12 years ago to look after her and I'd no sooner get rid of her than I would my husband. In fact, if I had to choose, the cat will come first - my husband knows that.
When we moved to Hong Kong, people asked us what we were doing with her. Get rid of her?
No way. She was coming with us - even if relocating her cost more than moving all our household goods.
As I type this, she's at the end of the sofa giving me loving blinks.
Now tell me that wasn't worth it.
Tabitha Wang hopes poor traumatised Scuzzi will find a better home now.
It's almost like watching a snuff video, and the worst part is how casually the guy saunters up to the bin, then tips the cat out like it was only some rubbish. It has since emerged that the man may be bipolar and behaving erratically - but, if so, should he have been entrusted with an animal and a young kid in the first place?
The video has gone viral. But the weird thing is, if you look at the comments made by the international community, they're centred on the cat and the trauma it suffered.
If you look at those made by Singaporeans, it's about the fact that a Merc driver did it.
Hello, why are we surprised?
Just because someone can afford to buy a luxury car doesn't mean he has a lot of sense. Does it make the act any less cruel if the guy drove up in a beat-up van instead?
It does say a lot about us as a materialistic society that we judge everything in terms of its worth.
By extension, we see animals as goods to be used and disposed off when we've tired of them. After all, the insurance and legal community consider pets as property, not family.
I used to live in a private condo in the East Coast and, in the four years I was there, there were two cases of cat dumping. In both cases, as they had collars on, they'd obviously been family pets who'd been got rid off after they had outgrown their cuteness.
The first was a kitten which had been abandoned at our main porch without food or water for days. We fed her for a bit before she became the victim of a car accident.
The second one was sent to the SPCA.
It makes my blood boil every time I read yet another Facebook status which says: "We got rid of the cat because the baby's coming/we've moved to a new place and don't want the furniture scratched/it bit the kids."
A pet is not a toy you can give away when you get tired of it or you don't have space for it.
A pet is family.
Let's say your kid goes to kindergarten and bites other kids. You don't send him back to the hospital and say: "I don't want this one; it bites." Or imagine you move to a new place with nice clean walls and your kids paint all over them. Do you leave them out on the streets to fend for themselves?
Animals have emotions too. They can feel, even if they can't talk, and they feel as much of an emotional attachment to their owners as family members do.
Remember Hachiko, the faithful dog who continued waiting at the station for nine years after his owner died?
Just recently too, there was the case of the dog in Panjiatun, China, which has mounted a graveside vigil for his dead owner for more than a week now.
And of course, you read of numerous cases of cats walking impossible distances just to be reunited with their human family.
There is no humane way to dump a pet.
Animals get abandonment issues too and can sometimes starve to death from pining. Can you really enjoy your new baby or pet-free home knowing that you have their blood on your hands?
I have a Singapore "longkang" cat. She's not the sweetest of animals and I have the scars to prove that. But I made a promise 12 years ago to look after her and I'd no sooner get rid of her than I would my husband. In fact, if I had to choose, the cat will come first - my husband knows that.
When we moved to Hong Kong, people asked us what we were doing with her. Get rid of her?
No way. She was coming with us - even if relocating her cost more than moving all our household goods.
As I type this, she's at the end of the sofa giving me loving blinks.
Now tell me that wasn't worth it.
Tabitha Wang hopes poor traumatised Scuzzi will find a better home now.
