SINGAPORE: Animal welfare groups say they'll be stepping up efforts to sterilise stray cats following the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority's decision to stop sterilising strays.

The AVA scrapped its sterilisation scheme as it has been ineffective in controlling the stray cat population.

Although they may have become such a common sight around Singapore, their existence draws mixed reactions from residents.

Reactions range from stray cat doesn't seem to bother to causing a lot of nuisance by littering a place with leftover food.

"Why do we have so many stray cats? Maybe it can be controlled in some other ways like some people giving them homes," said one Singaporean.

Another added: "Killing is very cruel, it's better that people don't feed them so they don't come around."

"Culling them or taking them out is a lot better instead of leaving them down there. I used to have cats before. There was problems also with the neighbours and all that," said another Singaporean.

The AVA is leaving it to the Town Councils to control the stray cat population by putting strays down if there are complaints against them.

But some animal welfare groups think this is inhumane.

Said Cathy Strong, President of Animal Lovers' League: "We are trying to approach the Town Councils to see how we can help them solve the problem. Not every complaint is genuine because it could be a cat sitting down there and it happened to be somebody who is afraid of cats or hates animals, pick up the phone and complain and that poor cat minding its own business is to be caught straightaway and killed."

But the Animal Lovers' League has other plans too.

It has secured a plot of land in Seletar which it hopes to convert into a pet shelter.

They have already come up with a low cost plan to build this pet boarding facility. So what they need is to raise $150,000 now to build it.

But they do not want this place to be misconstrued as a haven for rescued strays, rather they want volunteers who bring the strays here to be responsible for their upkeep.

Meanwhile, the fate of such strays lie in the hands of animal welfare groups who'll try to sterilise and save as many as they can. - CNA