The Straits Times

18 Oct 2004

It's paws up from AVA for adoption

By Lee Hui Chieh

THE moment Miss Leo Yunn Wenn, 25, saw the three-month-old marmalade kitten with big green eyes, she decided to take it home.

The engineer, who already has a dog, a hamster and three tanks of fish, was among 15 people who adopted a stray cat yesterday at a pet adoption drive.

The event in Bishan Park was co-organised by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), and is the first large-scale one by the agency, which is seen as a killer of strays.

Few are aware it has an animal welfare education branch which advocates responsible pet ownership and is now trying to encourage more people to adopt rather than to buy their pets, to reduce the problem of strays in the community.

There are an estimated 80,000 stray cats and 20,000 stray dogs in Singapore.

Last year, the AVA and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) put down 7,229 unwanted dogs and 13,698 unwanted cats.

AVA chief executive officer Ngiam Tong Tau said the number of animals abandoned 'is not increasing, but is always there'.

The Animal Lovers League, Action for Singapore Dogs Society, Cat Welfare Society, House Rabbit Society, Save Our Stray Animals and SPCA, all of which participated in yesterday's drive, welcomed the support from the authorities.

However, they said there is a limit to the number of strays people can and are willing to adopt.

Flat dwellers, who make up the majority of the population, are unable to adopt cats or bigger dogs because of Housing Board regulations, said Action for Singapore Dogs Society president Ricky Yeo.

House Rabbit Society president Teeny Teh added: 'Many people would rather go to a pet shop and buy than adopt because they find the screening process too troublesome.'

Calling on the authorities to control the number of pet shops here, SPCA executive officer Deirdre Moss said: 'It's too easy to buy a pet here. There are too many pet shops and independent breeders, and there's not enough information given at the point of sale.'

The number of pet shops here has more than doubled from 291 to 642 in three years. Each month, the SPCA receives about 1,000 stray or abandoned cats, dogs, rabbits and other small animals, of which only 85 or so are adopted.

The AVA has said it does not limit the number of pet shops because it does not want to encourage the smuggling of pets into Singapore under unsatisfactory conditions that could lead to their death.

So for now, adoption seems to be the preferred strategy.

The response has been encouraging. At the close of the drive, 15 of the 18 cats the Cat Welfare Society had brought were adopted.

The other groups did not allow adoption on the spot, but more than 160 people expressed interest in adopting animals.

Mr Yeo said: 'We're treating the symptoms, not the root cause, but that's as much as we can do now.'

Meanwhile, the Action for Singapore Dogs Society has offered a $2,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to the prosecution of the culprit who poisoned three dogs last week at Block 118, Clementi Street 13.