Streats
– Vocal
October
25, 2004
A cat-management system is the answer
WITH
reference to the letter "Feeding strays worsens problem" (Streats,
Oct 22) by Mr Chew Loon Meng,
the Cat Welfare Society advocates the feeding of cats, but only if done responsibly
and only if it plays a part in the management of the cat population in the neighbourhood.
Irresponsible
cat feeders do the cats a disservice. By not cleaning up after the cats
have eaten, they not only flout the law by littering but also cause residents
to complain about the presence of cats.
The
cats do not mess up the place, humans do. But it is the animals that will
suffer because, more often than not, when complaints are made to the town
councils, they will send a pest-control company down to round them up.
They will then be sent to the Agri-Food and
Veterinary Authority to be killed.
If
these irresponsible feeders also do not sterilise the
cats they feed, then the cats will breed. And with each new litter of
kittens, more residents will complain, and, again, the cats will be rounded up
and killed.
However,
killing 13,000 cats each year for more than 20 years has shown that it is not
an effective way of managing the cat population.
When
a neighbourhood kills all its cats, some from nearby
areas will start to come in to occupy that territory (nature abhors a vacuum),
so there is just an endless cycle of killing.
In
neighbourhoods where there are cats, a system of
managing their population is needed. An effective and cost-efficient way
of doing this is sterilisation.
Under
such a management scheme, volunteer caregivers feed cats in a responsible
manner by making sure they clean up later.
Feeding
helps them to gain the cats' trust, which makes it easier for them to catch the
cats for sterilisation. After the cats have been caught and sterilised, they will be released back to the area to
defend their territory against unsterilised cats.
Sterilised cats will not caterwaul as they no longer mate, they will usually stop marking their territory with
their urine.
Caregivers
will also ensure that these cats are healthy by taking them to vet when they
are ill. So, under this scheme, what you have is a pool of cats that will
no longer multiply, caterwaul, spray urine, forage or beg for food.
These
cats will defend your neighbourhood against unsterilised cats and will catch pests such as cockroaches
and small rats.
If
Mr Chew would like to set up such a management system
in his neighbourhood, he should approach his
residents committee for help with getting volunteers, and the Cat Welfare
Society will be happy to come down to help them set up the scheme.
- Christina
Eng
Vice
President
Cat
Welfare Society