My human parents run a small cat rescue group called Love Kuching Project and they do Trap-Neuter-Return or TNR, of stray, that is, feral, cats in the south east region of Singapore. In March and April this year they were conducting TNR of the cat colonies in our neighboring town of Eunos, which recently suffered a high influx of new abandoned cats.
I wrote before that we Asian cats live in very highly human populated city areas, so stand-offs between the cats and humans that don’t like us happen too often for my stray relatives to be safe. What happens in Singapore is that when a human complains to the town councils, they send in pest control humans to trap and euthanize the strays to resolve the complaint. While Cat Welfare Society advocates to the town councils to allow mediation and resolution without resorting to culling, it still happens a lot, as the town council has jurisdiction. This is so even if only one person complains about stray cats.
Which brings me to the next point. TNR in Singapore is called TNRM — where the M stands for Manage.
TNRM - M is for Manage
The reason the Manage element is necessary is because of the high level of human contact with stray cats in a city like ours. Many love my stray relatives, but there are humans who don’t, so the only way to overcome the cat haters is for cat advocates to learn to build good relationships with the humans living near them.
During the TNRMs that my parents conduct monthly, not just in the town of Eunos, they often encounter other humans, and there they talk human-speak about how TNR is the way to manage the cat population and reduce cat nuisances to humans caused by complete cats. This education process is vital because many humans will say to my parents — why don’t you just remove the cats, that is, kill the cats?
My parents helped to trap, neuter and return 27 community cats in Eunos. Some cats were relocated from highly-populated apartment blocks to nearby blocks to lessen the population.
A stray cat being trapped for neutering
These 27 cats are from two apartment blocks’ vicinities, which is a very high population for community cats. When cat haters see throngs of cats, they send complaints, and the town council sends pest-control to cull the cats, even if already tipped ear sterilized.
Singapore is going to the polls on 7 May, and the different towns managed in constituencies have a chance in being managed by new policy makers. If the party elected to the constituencies are pro-cat-welfare, there will be a greater change on the legislation level with the Management aspect of TNRM in Singapore — to stop the reactive nature that town councils currently have that launches culling measures too swiftly. Platforms can have a chance to exist where mediation and resolution in a humane way can be carried out, instead of reactive culling of stray cats. We cats are hoping for change for our stray relatives!
{ 1 comment }
TRAP NEUTER and RETURN is the decent, humane and only way to go!!!!!!!!!
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