Sunday Times (10-9-06) : Cat sleuths who just don't give up
(Nt interseted, kindly fuck off : ) Don't read!
WHEN 10 cats were strangled to death at a carpark in Kallang, she caught the culprit. When a man in Bedok repeatedly abused and killed several cats, she confronted him and reported him to the police.
And now that 18 cats have been brutally killed in Jurong East, Miss Sandy Lim is there once again playing detective, along with 20 other cat lovers.
Miss Lim, an education consultant in her 40s, together with other cat lovers have become possibly Singapore's most effective group of grassroots activists - all for the sake of their beloved felines.
They have banded together, coming from all over Singapore to carry out night patrols to catch the cat killers of Bedok and Kallang.Both were eventually jailed for three months and eight weeks respectively.
Three years ago, when the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) announced it would cull cats because sterilisation was ineffective, the Cat Welfare Society took just two hours to organise a press conference to dispute AVA's claims.
Through the years, they have campaigned tirelessly and effectively against cat culling, cared for strays, initiated meetings with three government ministers and AVA officials and negotiated with town councils.
Not only do many town councils now agree to a non-culling policy, they also allow the cat activists to handle any cat-related complaints from residents.
One group in East Coast went a step further by identifying households with cats and educating the owners on the benefits of cat sterilisation.
In the Ang Mo Kio-Yio Chu Kang area, a resident's committee, which once found cats to be a nuisance, is now so happy with the strays that they are considering building a cat-feeding area.
Indeed, lobbying has been so effective that the Government has embraced sterilisation as part of its strategy of managing the cat population.
But even achievements like that do not make them complacent. Just last week, an ad hoc group of 24 Tampines residents - 21 women and three men - marched up to their MP, Minister Mah Bow Tan, to complain that their town council had broken an agreement not to cull sterilised cats.
When these cat lovers speak, people tend to listen. And when they decide to act, things tend to get done.
So who are they?
Some of them belong to the Cat Welfare Society, which was first formed in 1999 when a few friends, outraged by news of five kittens being burnt alive, got together to help stray cats. Now the group, the only one of its kind in Singapore, has a bigger aim of managing the island's cat population by sterilisation.
Driven by a passion for felines, the society has amassed an impressive list of achievements.
But just as often, these activists are loose affiliations of neighbourhood cat lovers or, as in the case of Ms Lim, independent operators plugged into an islandwide network of like-minded souls.
They usually organise themselves through phone calls and SMS, and often rope in other cat-loving friends and neighbours. Not only is their network very extensive, they swing into action very quickly too.
Ms Deirdre Moss, executive officer at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), said having such caring animal lovers around helps lighten the society's workload, unlike 20 years ago, when the SPCA was expected by the public to be the lone problem-solver.
So what makes these feline-friendly people so effective?
Passion is part of it.
Miss Lim has spent more than $500,000 on feeding, sterilising and sheltering stray cats over the past six years. Now, with the recent spate of cat killings, she has largely ignored her job to commit herself fully to sleuthing.
She is happy to patrol areas day and night, trail cat killers to work and even confront suspects in their homes.
Ms Dawn Kua, the Cat Welfare Society's director of operations and only full-time employee, gave up a four-figure lawyer's salary and knocked back a move to the US, where her husband is, all because she wants to save cats.
These women do not necessarily fit the popular image of the cat lover - middle-aged, female, single and slightly batty.
Ms Kua said: 'Generally, more women volunteer in charities. Many other volunteer groups are female-dominated, not just our society.'
Of the 10 Cat Welfare Society committee members, seven are women and most of them are professionals with spare time and money - and a certain level of fearlessness. '
We are aware it is dangerous but the brutality of the acts and our love for animals made us put aside our fears,' said public relations executive Ng Swee Ching, 26.
Miss Rebecca Ho, 20, a purchasing coordinator and part-time student at the Singapore Institute of Management who was part of the Tampines group that met Mr Mah, said: 'Like other Singaporeans, we are busy people too, but we make time because we believe very strongly in not culling cats.'
WHEN 10 cats were strangled to death at a carpark in Kallang, she caught the culprit. When a man in Bedok repeatedly abused and killed several cats, she confronted him and reported him to the police.
And now that 18 cats have been brutally killed in Jurong East, Miss Sandy Lim is there once again playing detective, along with 20 other cat lovers.
Miss Lim, an education consultant in her 40s, together with other cat lovers have become possibly Singapore's most effective group of grassroots activists - all for the sake of their beloved felines.
They have banded together, coming from all over Singapore to carry out night patrols to catch the cat killers of Bedok and Kallang.Both were eventually jailed for three months and eight weeks respectively.
Three years ago, when the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) announced it would cull cats because sterilisation was ineffective, the Cat Welfare Society took just two hours to organise a press conference to dispute AVA's claims.
Through the years, they have campaigned tirelessly and effectively against cat culling, cared for strays, initiated meetings with three government ministers and AVA officials and negotiated with town councils.
Not only do many town councils now agree to a non-culling policy, they also allow the cat activists to handle any cat-related complaints from residents.
One group in East Coast went a step further by identifying households with cats and educating the owners on the benefits of cat sterilisation.
In the Ang Mo Kio-Yio Chu Kang area, a resident's committee, which once found cats to be a nuisance, is now so happy with the strays that they are considering building a cat-feeding area.
Indeed, lobbying has been so effective that the Government has embraced sterilisation as part of its strategy of managing the cat population.
But even achievements like that do not make them complacent. Just last week, an ad hoc group of 24 Tampines residents - 21 women and three men - marched up to their MP, Minister Mah Bow Tan, to complain that their town council had broken an agreement not to cull sterilised cats.
When these cat lovers speak, people tend to listen. And when they decide to act, things tend to get done.
So who are they?
Some of them belong to the Cat Welfare Society, which was first formed in 1999 when a few friends, outraged by news of five kittens being burnt alive, got together to help stray cats. Now the group, the only one of its kind in Singapore, has a bigger aim of managing the island's cat population by sterilisation.
Driven by a passion for felines, the society has amassed an impressive list of achievements.
But just as often, these activists are loose affiliations of neighbourhood cat lovers or, as in the case of Ms Lim, independent operators plugged into an islandwide network of like-minded souls.
They usually organise themselves through phone calls and SMS, and often rope in other cat-loving friends and neighbours. Not only is their network very extensive, they swing into action very quickly too.
Ms Deirdre Moss, executive officer at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), said having such caring animal lovers around helps lighten the society's workload, unlike 20 years ago, when the SPCA was expected by the public to be the lone problem-solver.
So what makes these feline-friendly people so effective?
Passion is part of it.
Miss Lim has spent more than $500,000 on feeding, sterilising and sheltering stray cats over the past six years. Now, with the recent spate of cat killings, she has largely ignored her job to commit herself fully to sleuthing.
She is happy to patrol areas day and night, trail cat killers to work and even confront suspects in their homes.
Ms Dawn Kua, the Cat Welfare Society's director of operations and only full-time employee, gave up a four-figure lawyer's salary and knocked back a move to the US, where her husband is, all because she wants to save cats.
These women do not necessarily fit the popular image of the cat lover - middle-aged, female, single and slightly batty.
Ms Kua said: 'Generally, more women volunteer in charities. Many other volunteer groups are female-dominated, not just our society.'
Of the 10 Cat Welfare Society committee members, seven are women and most of them are professionals with spare time and money - and a certain level of fearlessness. '
We are aware it is dangerous but the brutality of the acts and our love for animals made us put aside our fears,' said public relations executive Ng Swee Ching, 26.
Miss Rebecca Ho, 20, a purchasing coordinator and part-time student at the Singapore Institute of Management who was part of the Tampines group that met Mr Mah, said: 'Like other Singaporeans, we are busy people too, but we make time because we believe very strongly in not culling cats.'
Labels: Animal Welfare
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