Sarah:
Choi Wah alerted CWS and various others to two letters in Mypaper, 14th May 2008.
(Click for the large pix)
Basically, there are two letters. One seems to be inspired by the Class95 DJs comments. A Ms Florence Goh Gek Siok says that while she does not condone killing animals, she feels that feeding cats has caused the population to explode. The increased population results in a neighbourhood nuisance, such as water bowls left unattended, cat faeces left in flowerpots, and of course, the good old car scratching accusation.
She urged the relevant authorities to “curb the stray population”, though she doesn’t explain how they should do that. She doesn’t mention neutering as an option, which is a bit strange she doesn’t want them to kill the cats either. Finally, she says that if they deal with the problem of littering and feeding, then cats wouldn’t get killed. She specifically refers to the case in Pasir Ris.
The last part of the logic seems a bit strange. For example, pretend you had a group of rowdy teenagers that played loud music at night. A resident got so angry, that he whipped out a gun and shot them. Would she then say that incidents like that could be prevented if parents kept their kids at home? Would she say that the man’s actions in killing the teens was understandable, as he was frustrated?
Of course she wouldn’t. She would say that the man should have taken other steps. He could have spoken to the teenagers to lower the music. He could have asked the police to speak to them. He could have suggested that the resident’s council create a Youth corner, where the teens could hang out undisturbed. He certainly shouldn’t have killed them, no matter how upset he was.
(Although I’m sure there are people who find teenagers as frustrating as cats! 
)
That’s what Cat Welfare has been doing in the past, and what many responsible caregivers have been doing – providing other, better, options to frustrated people. They would have suggested a Cat Cafe to town council, so that feeding could have taken place where it doesn’t disturb people. They would have started a TNRM programme, to reduce the numbers of cats. They would have helped the Town Council run a responsible feeding campaign.
If Ms Florence Goh would like some further information, well, she knows where to write. Just because we like cats doesn’t mean we don’t sympathise with her problems. Any cat owner will tell you that there are times when they feel very annoyed with their own cats!
The other letter was more bizarre. A Mdm Jacqueline De Souza said that there were too many stray cats in Tampinese around some specific blocks. She wanted them removed (translation, killed) because they would transmit disease to the children.
Sadly, that’s what a lot of people believe about cats – that they have some sort of disease to spread. It is actually extremely rare for a disease to spread from one species (cats) to another (humans). It would be a shame if this woman tried to get the cats killed because this kind of ignorance.
By the way, if you have opinions to share about the letters, you can write into MyPaper. Their address is Myviews@sph.com.sg . They’re a bilingual paper, so for those of you who are better in Mandarin, here’s your chance.
Update:
And some people have responded already
1 Comment
May 15, 2008 at 8:31 am
[...] 2 letters appeared in mypaper. Details on the Unoffical Cat Welfare Society Diary. It’s the same gamut of typical [...]