Tabby Lee 0

Petition to stop the inhumane methods of capturing strays in Singapore.

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This petition is not meant to be political, nor to invoke anti-establishment sentiments. Its main purpose is to be the voice of thousands of stray dogs in singapore who are facing impending undeserved death or mistreatment despite their kind and innocent nature.

We have several issues that we would like to voice, with reference to an article on Today Online, titled, "Untrained animal catchers a cause for concern".

"External dog catchers have to comply with AVA's guidelines for capture, handling and transport of animals and the use of animal traps, said an AVA spokesperson."

1. Does AVA's guidelines include using potentially fatal weapons or painful ways of trapping? Such traps include leg traps with sharp spikes, or poison.

Last weekend, volunteers on stray feeding rounds found several semi-conscious dogs writhing in pain at a cemetery. They are suspected of being poisoned and left to die there, they are currently fighting for their lives in the intensive care unit. One of the dogs have passed on. See here.

"The issue of how strays are handled also surfaced last month when a town council alerted the Cat Welfare Society (CWS) that a sterilised cat had been caught by mistake. When CWS found the cat, it found it had been kept in a cage wrapped in a garbage bag, without food."

1. There should be stricter guidelines on capturing policies. While the Cat Welfare Society (CWS) was fortunate to have AVA inform them of such an error, this is not the case all the time. There have been instances where several volunteer friends had to personally check with AVA about a sterilized stray being captured by authorities after being informed by the compound caretakers. They also had to foot a hefty $500 bill for one or two nights of "boarding and feeding purposes" in exchange of the dog. Why only capture one dog out of the many strays roaming in the near vicinity, and charge collectors an exorbitant amount just for its release? Is there any profiteering from the capturing and releasing of dogs?

2. Why capture already sterilized dogs*? Doing so only undermines the efforts of non-profit bodies to reduce the stray population by sterilizing them. Furthermore, the sterilization costs were borne by various NGOs and individuals, and sometimes with monies collected donations from the general public.

Given that we are a society with limited resources, I believe that the AVA should recognise the efforts of these organisations, by only catching unsterilised strays rather than hamper them. Wouldn't the money used to pay people for each stray caught be put to better use by sterilizing the dogs instead?

*sterilized strays have a clip on their ear to differentiate them from non-sterilized strays.

I do hope that if you are reading this, you are also with me on the fact that these dogs do not deserve such an inhumane treatment. These dogs, like us, feel pain. Just because they do not speak our language does not make their life any less valuable.

Also, we would like AVA to rethink their policy on capturing sterilized strays.

Thank you for your time. Your signature is greatly appreciated.