MAY 24, 2003
AVA ADMITS: Yes, we're culling stray cats

It's for public health reasons and not because of Sars, says government body. Animal welfare groups protest the move

By Grace Chua

EXPECT to see fewer stray cats, if any, roaming the neighbourhood.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority has confirmed what animal lovers have suspected for the past week: that a campaign to cull stray cats is being mounted island-wide in the wake of Sars.

But the AVA spokesman stressed that the culling had nothing to do with any fear that cats were transmitting the Sars virus. There is no evidence of this, he said.

Rather, it is part of the 'Singapore's OK' programme to clean up the surroundings and improve public hygiene.

When town council contractors move in to clean food centres and markets, pest controllers would round up the strays and have them brought to the AVA to be put down.

There are about 80,000 stray cats in Singapore.

Yesterday, 30 cats were culled. The day before, the number put down was 25.

The AVA expects the number to increase.

'Food establishments should not have any animals, including cats, for public health reasons,' said the spokesman.

Town council managers contacted maintained that they were rounding up strays in response to public complaints about stray cats being a nuisance.

Cats dirty the areas with their excrement. People also tend to leave food out in the open for them, they said.

One pleased Pasir Ris resident, Harleen Kaur, 18, said: 'I'm scared of cats, so I'm glad they're going to round up strays.

'It'll be a relief not to have stray cats around getting in my way and spreading diseases.'

But the culling campaign is making animal protection groups like the Cat Welfare Society, Action for Singapore Dogs and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals see red.

At a joint press conference, they pointed out that the culling campaign contradicted the AVA's own Stray Cat Rehabilitation Scheme, a sterilisation programme started in 1998, which the groups had devoted time, money and energy to help carry out.

The Cat Welfare Society, for example, had spent $60,000 so far, money from donors and animal lovers, to sterilise about 5,000 cats.

The groups argued that sterilisation was a more humane and effective method of controlling the stray population. Left unsterilised, cats which escaped the dragnet would breed even more quickly as they would have more food and space to do so.

Madam Foo Wei Fong, 36, a shop assistant who is a Cat Welfare Society volunteer, said she had brought a stray to the AVA for sterilisation on Wednesday and was turned away.

'We are all very puzzled and scared. I have had sleepless nights because I heard they were going to cull all the cats,' she said.

The AVA confirmed that the sterilisation programme has been put on hold - as it contradicts the current public hygiene programme of removing cats from the streets altogether.

The animal lovers are not giving up.

Said the Cat Welfare Society's president, Dr Lynn Yeo: 'We regret that the Government has decided upon such extreme measures and are disappointed that animal welfare organisations were not informed nor consulted over such a drastic action that involves the lives of thousands of stray animals in Singapore.

'We appeal to them to reconsider their decision.'

Copyright @ 2003 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.