Cat Welfare Society: Frequently-Asked Questions

CWS FAQ

Please read through these questions first, before dropping us an email. The answer to your question is likely to be answered here. If your question is not answered in the FAQ, kindly drop us an email at info@catwelfare.org and our volunteers will get back to you as soon as they can.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

TRAP-NEUTER-RETURN-MANAGE (TNRM)

ADOPTION

STERILISATION

VOLUNTEERING

I would like to help out -- how can I do so?

GENERAL QUESTIONS

What is the Cat Welfare Society and what do you do?

The Cat Welfare Society is a non-profit organisation run almost entirely by volunteers and registered in Singapore under the Societies Act in October 1999. We are also a registered Charity as of June 2004. We have one full-time staff.

The Society’s mission is "Saving Lives Through Sterilisation". We believe in bringing down the community cat population through more effective and humane long term methods.

Why Sterilisation?

We feel that only by tackling the root cause of cats being killed every year can we stop the problem -- and that is that there are too many cats breeding.

Thirteen thousand cats are killed a year -- that works out to 35 healthy cats a day. To keep that number down, the number of cats born has to be reduced drastically.

To put it simply, the fewer cats born, the fewer cats have to suffer and die.

What’s a community cat?

A community cat is commonly known as a stray cat, but we think the word ‘community’ better describes these cats. Calling them stray cats gives one the impression that these cats don’t have a home and that they wander around -- but they do actually have a home, which is the environment they live in! Some of these community cats have been residents in the environment for much longer than some of the residents.

Community cats are a part of the community too!

Why not run a shelter?

We appreciate the hard work that people are putting into shelters, but ultimately shelters are a drain on resources -- both time and money. In a well-run shelter, the cats taken in will have good lives, but in the meantime, 60000-80000 cats live on our streets. It is impossible to fit all of them into a shelter. In the meantime, they keep breeding out there and new cats are born which need to go into the shelter. Shelters fill up in no time -- and there are still many cats to help out on the streets.

With sterilisation however, we’re making sure these cats don’t reproduce -- they live out their lives on the street where they are cared for by caregivers if they are under a Trap-Neuter-Return-Manage (TNRM) programme (see below for TNRM).

In some places in the US where sterilisation has been practised aggressively, the number of cats going into shelters has dropped by as much as 50%. The number of animals killed has also dropped from 13 million ten years ago to 4 million last year. This has been attributed to aggressive sterilisation.

If I find a community cat can I bring it to you?

No, we are not a shelter. Our focus is on Sterilisation.

What should I do with a community cat then? Is there anyone else who can take it?

We would advise you NOT to remove a community cat unless it’s in danger. Most cats are fine where they are -- you can get it sterilised and return it to the area where you originally found it. Start a TNRM programme in the area if you can.

Furthermore, due to the vacuum effect (explained below), more cats will just move into the area to take the place of cats that have been removed. Also, while the cat you have picked up is off the streets, there are many other cats still out there. How many cats are you going to take off the streets?

The shelters in Singapore are all running at full capacity so please do not take a healthy community cat, which is fine where it is, off the streets unless you plan to take it in yourself.

What about kittens? I heard a kitten meowing and the mother is not around.

Please check and make sure the mother cat is really not around. Kittens need the colostrum in their mother’s milk to survive -- if you remove a kitten from its mother, chances of its survival are much slimmer. Many a well-meaning person has picked up a kitten, only to find that the kitten does not survive.

Furthermore, once you’ve touched it, your scent is on the kitten. The mother cat may see this as threatening and abandon the kitten.

Standing around in front of the kitten and looking for the mother for a few minutes is not going to accurately tell you if the mother cat is around. She may be gone for hours to hunt for food. If you are standing in front of the kitten, the mother cat is not going to make an appearance.

The best thing you can do is to walk off and check back periodically. If the kitten is still there and in distress, then you might consider taking the kitten in.

I’ve already taken the kitten in. What should I do?

First of all, please do not feed it cow’s milk as that is bad for the kitten. You can get formula for the kitten from a pet store. Do write in to us for further information if you need it. We may on occasion have a foster who may be able to help, but nursing newborns is very time consuming and would require someone who does not work or works from home. Most of our volunteers are working and are thus unable to do that.

What if I find an injured or sick cat? Can I bring the cat to you?

We do not have a vet clinic. None of us are licensed to treat sick animals. Please bring the cat to the nearest vet clinic to be looked at by a vet.

For a list of vets, please to go www.sva.org.sg or to www.yellowpages.com.sg and look under veterinarians.

Can you come down and pick up the cat if I find a sick/injured cat?

There are two reasons why we cannot do this. Firstly and most importantly, sick or injured cats often go into hiding. If these cats are not caught and brought down to the vet by the person who sees the cat, there is a good chance that the cat will be gone by the time CWS volunteers go down. Secondly, we simply don’t have enough manpower to pick up every injured cat. Almost all our volunteers are working full time. If you are unable to pick up the cat for some pressing reason, drop us an email, and if we have a volunteer in the area, we’ll ask if they can assist.

Remember though that time is of essence -- every minute that is wasted deciding whether to pick up the cat may be the minute that could save that cat’s life.

We can arrange for a subsidized rate for treatment if you email us at info@catwelfare.org.

I have just seen a cat which has been abused. What should I do?

If the cat is injured, please bring it to the vet immediately for medical treatment. While you are there, please tell the vet that you suspect that the cat has been abused and that you would like the vet to give you a written report. Photographs would be particularly useful as evidence. Please bring the evidence down to the police post and lodge a police report.

If the cat is dead, please take photographs of the body or bring the body down to your nearest police post. DO NOT throw the body away without taking photos. If you do throw the body away, evidence is lost. Even if you don’t know who the abuser is, you can still file a report. This may not be an isolated case, and it’s a good idea to have it on record in case the abuser is ever found.

Please let us know if any such cases of abuse occur. We also have a reward fund for abuse -- drop us an email at info@catwelfare.org to find out more.

I’ve lost my cat. What do I do?

Please call the AVA at 1800-4761600 or 64719987 to find out if your cat was brought in there.

If you live in an HDB estate, please call your town council to see if they have recently trapped any cats. You can find the town council numbers at www.sgdi.gov.sg.

If you live in a private estate, please call your managing committee, if you have one, to see if any cats have been caught. Time is of essence. Please call as soon as you realise your cat is missing.

We encourage you to please keep your cat indoors at all times. Cats are safer and live longer when they are fully indoor cats. They are also less likely to annoy your neighbours.

Why don’t you have a phone number? How can I contact you?

We don’t have a phone number as we don’t have an office. All the volunteers and our one staff work out of their own homes and offices. If you would like to contact us please go to the Contact Us section of our website to see how you can reach us.

TRAP-NEUTER-RETURN-MANAGE (TNRM)

What is TNRM?

TNRM stands for Trap-Neuter-Return and Manage. This means the cats are Trapped to be Neutered (Sterilised) and then Returned to where they came from. The cats are then managed back in the environment where they came from.

Management involves managing the cats to minimise complaints, and dealing with any complaints should any crop up. It also involves looking after the cats after sterilisation to make sure they are fed responsibly and that their health is looked after.

How do I start or join a TNRM programme in my estate?

You can help to start a group in your area, or join an existing group if there is one. Do drop us an email at info@catwelfare.org and we’ll try and put you in touch with other volunteers in the area if there are any.

Drop us an email if you’d like CWS to come and run a TNRM workshop to show you how to trap the cats and how to run a proper management programme in your estate.

It is not enough to just feed and sterilise the cats, important as that may be, as we need to have people manage the cats in the area, so that cats and people can happily co-exist. With a good management programme in place, complaints should be settled, or not even arise, so that the cats are safe where they are.

I have been told that feeding cats is illegal. Is this true?

No it is not. Feeding cats is perfectly legal. Littering is however illegal. Please make sure that you feed properly and that the area is cleaned up after you are done with the feeding. For more information, write to us at info@catwelfare.org, including your name and address and we can send you a brochure on responsible feeding. If you feel you have been harassed during a feeding session, do drop us an email; or if it’s an urgent case, call the police.

Doesn’t feeding lure cats into my estate?

Feeding does not lure cats into the area -- food and territory are not the same. A cat may live in one area and eat in another.

Also, there are cats everywhere -- these cats were already in the community in all likelihood before someone started feeding them. Imagine this -- is it more likely that someone stood outside every day with a plate of food hoping a cat would show up one day, or that the feeder saw a cat or cats and started feeding them? It’s not fun to feed -- to do it properly takes a lot of time and commitment. Most feeders do so out of a sense of compassion and would be happy to stop if there were no cats that were hungry and waiting for them.

But feeding makes them less likely to kill rats and cockroaches!

Feeding and hunting are two entirely different things. The hunting instinct is independent of feeding. In fact, Desmond Morris wrote about a study that showed that cats that were fed actually killed more cockroaches and mice because they had to travel less distance in order to eat. As such, they stayed closer to home, and killed more pests.

As anyone familiar with cats will tell you, they often kill the cockroach or rat, but they do not eat them, so it is not hunger that drives them.

Also, if the rat is beyond a certain size, the cat will not be able to catch and kill it either!

What happens if I call up and complain about a cat nuisance to my town council/management committee/residents’ committee/AVA?

If you are living in a town council and call them to complain, the cat is taken away and killed.

If you live in a private estate and complain to the AVA, the cat which is trapped is killed.

If your management committee or residents’ committee is trapping cats and is not part of a TRNM programme, the cats are again in all likelihood either being killed or dumped. Neither of these are good solutions.

These cats are not being taken to a nice shelter somewhere where they are looked after for the rest of their lives simply because there isn’t enough space to accommodate all these cats. They are being taken away and killed.

This does not mean that if you have a valid complaint that you must suffer in silence. Contact CWS and we’ll work with you to find an effective and humane solution.

ADOPTION

How do I put a cat up for adoption?

Send us a photo and a short write up of the cat, along with its name and your contact details. We will post the cat’s photo and writeup on the adoption board of our website. If a potential adopter contacts us about your cat, we will forward his/her email to you.

If the cat is above 6 months old, you must sterilise it before putting it up for adoption. You will have to warrant that the cat is sterilised when you send the photo and writeup to us for posting on our website.

If you don’t have a shelter, how can I view the cats up for adoption?

Cats that are up for adoption are placed with fosters, who are usually the people who picked up the cat. CWS volunteers will arrange for you to visit the cat at the foster’s home.

Why doesn’t the foster respond to me?

CWS runs the adoption board as a public service -- as such anyone can post on the board. We do not know most of the fosters and if they do not respond to your email, we would not know why. Our role as the contact person is to put fosters in touch with potential adopters by forwarding enquiries to the foster. The rest is, as they say, up to you!

Do bear in mind though that most fosters work, so it may take them a bit of time to get back to you. If you feel that your email may have been overlooked and no one has contacted you in a week, then drop us an email.

On the flip side, fosters, please do try and contact potential adopters promptly. We may have to ban a foster if we receive too many complaints about non-response from potential adopters.

Why didn’t I get the cat I requested? I wrote in as soon as the cat was posted.

Again, we have no control over whom the cats are given to as these are not our cats. The fosters make the decision as to a suitable adopter.

Please remember -- a cat is a lifetime commitment and this is not a first-come, first-served scenario. The foster is trying to find the best match for the cat.

I have just returned a cat. Why can’t I adopt another?

If you adopt and return a cat on a whim, without any compelling reason, we will ban you from adopting another cat from our board.

If we receive complaints from a number of fosters, we will also ban you from adopting whether or not you’ve adopted before.

We also reserve the right to ban fosters or adopters at our discretion.

STERILISATION

What is sterilisation?

Sterilisation is the surgical removal of part of the reproductive organs (ovaries and uterus of females and testicles of males) from an animal so that it can no longer reproduce. It is a safe and quick procedure that is performed by a veterinarian. The cat is under general anaesthesia the entire time, so it will not feel any pain. The procedure takes 5-15 minutes and the cat is back to normal in 1-2 days.

Sterilised community cats can be recognised by a tipped left ear. Tipping is done during the sterilisation surgery while the cat is still under anaesthesia. It is a universally recognised way of marking a sterilised cat so that it is not neutered twice.

How does sterilisation save lives?

Sterilisation saves lives by reducing the number of cats that are killed each year in a bid to control the cat population.

For more than 25 years, an average of 13,000 cats have been killed each year to control the number of cats on the streets. This means that more than 325,000 cats have been killed.

Sterilisation is a humane and effective alternative to killing. When we reduce the number of cats on the streets through sterilisation, there will be no need to kill.

How does sterilisation work in controlling the cat population?

When we trap, sterilise and return the cats to their environment, the sterilised cats will guard their territory against other non-sterilised intruders. The sterilised colony will first stabilise, and then decrease over the years as the cats live out their natural lives. But this is only possible if pet cat owners do not abandon their cats and kittens.

Can one or two cats guard an area against non-sterilised cats?

There must be an optimal number of cats in each area to guard against unwanted intruders. If the area is big and the number of cats few, the small number of sterilised cats may not be able to keep out non-sterilised intruders effectively. It is however, difficult to conclude what the optimal figure should be, as many other factors, such as the area’s density and number of food sources, affect the outcome. Therefore it is best to return all sterilised cats back into the neighbourhood and let natural attrition decide on how many sterilised cats each area needs to keep out intruders.

How does it benefit me?

If you don’t like cats, you will be glad to know that sterilisation is an effective way of reducing the number of cats in your area in the medium to long term.

If you like cats, you will be happy that fewer cats are being killed because of sterilisation.

If you are a volunteer caregiver, the health and behavioural benefits that your cats will get through sterilisation will no doubt please you.

How does it benefit my cat?

Sterilisation has health benefits for both male and female cats. Spayed female cats will not contract ovarian and uterus cancers, or pyometritis (a potentially fatal uterus infection). Their chances of getting breast cancer are also greatly decreased, especially for those sterilised before their first heat.

As for sterilised male cats, they will not suffer from testicular cancer and because they are less inclined to fight other cats, their chances of being bitten and hence contracting feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) are very much reduced.

Also, when sterilisation reduces the number of cats in an area, there is less risk of complaints, which would otherwise lead to the cats being rounded up and killed.

How does it benefit my neighbourhood?

Sterilisation eliminates or severely reduces certain ‘anti-social’ (from a human point of view) behaviours of cats. These include calling out loudly while mating, spraying urine and fighting.

Should only female cats be sterilised since male cats can’t get pregnant?

Sterilising male cats will result in health benefits and eliminate ‘anti-social’ behaviours. Also, if a male cat is not sterilised in an area of sterilised female cats, it will roam further afield to look for non-sterilised females and impregnate them.

Should I sterilise my pet cats?

Yes, as they will benefit health-wise and you will gain when they stop trying to leave your home to mate, spray urine around the house and get into fights with each other. Also, you will not have unwanted litters of kittens on your hands. And if your cat should happen to run out one day, you’ll rest easy knowing that it’s not breeding and adding to the community cat population.

A breeding pair can produce 3-5 kittens, 3-4 times a year. That would result in 9-20 kittens being born in a single year. With so many cats in the house, owners then feel overwhelmed not just by the sheer numbers, but by the time and effort it takes to take care of so many and by the financial cost of food, litter and veterinary bills. Many then decide to abandon their cats. Abandonment is a major factor in hindering the efforts of volunteers to control the cat population in Singapore.

I’m sure I can find homes for my kittens if I let my cats breed -- people like kittens, don’t they?

Unfortunately, there are already so many cats and kittens that need homes, including pure-bred ones, that finding homes will be very difficult. You will also be taking away a home from a community cat who may be in need of immediate care or who’s in danger.

Isn’t it cruel to deprive my cat of a chance to have a family?

Cats do not mate for pleasure. It is actually rather painful for the female cat. They also have no control over their mating i.e. they are slaves to their hormones. Sterilised cats on the other hand do not miss the act of mating as they no longer have the urge to mate.

Will my cat get fat and lazy after sterilisation?

It is a myth that cats get fat and lazy after sterilisation. As long as you feed your cat the appropriate amount of food and play with it so that it gets some exercise, your cat should not get fat and lazy.

When should I get my cat sterilised?

In general, cats are sterilised when they are 6 months old. However, some female cats do come into heat at an earlier age. Signs of heat include increased appetite, restlessness, being more affectionate than usual and emitting short low calls. At this point, she will also start to attract males. Tom cats, on the other hand, when they reach sexual maturity, will instinctively spray their surroundings with a strong-smelling urine. Look out for these signs and take your cat to be sterilised immediately once you see them.

How much does sterilisation cost?

Depending on the vet clinic, the cost of sterilising a male cat is SGD40-SGD100 and for females, SGD50-SGD180. For a list of vet clinics, you can go to the Singapore Veterinary Association’s website at www.sva.org.sg.

If you are sterilising community cats, you can call Cat Welfare Society’s voice mailbox at 7000-CATSNIP (7000-2287647) or email catsnip@catwelfare.org to book a slot. CWS will make an appointment for you at the nearest participating vet clinic. All cats sterilised through CWS will have their ears tipped. The cost of sterilising a male cat through CWS is SGD20-SGD35 while for a female cat, it’s SGD35-SGD65.

I don’t think I can afford to sterilise my cat.

The question you should ask yourself is "Can I afford NOT to sterilise my cat?". Your cat may have kittens and finding good homes for them will not be an easy task. If you do keep all of the kittens, the cost of food, litter and medical bills may prove to be a heavy financial burden. Also, certain cancers can be avoided with sterilisation.

I’d like to sterilise a community cat. How do I catch it?

You can try luring the cat into a cat carrier with food. Alternatively, you can borrow a cat trap from Cat Welfare Society by emailing us at info@catwelfare.org. The loan of the trap is free, but there is a deposit of SGD65.

How do I prepare my cat for sterilisation surgery?

Your cat must not be given any food and water from 10pm of the night before the surgery.

What does post-surgery recovery entail?

After surgery, keep the cat in a quiet place and observe its behaviour. You may release it only when it is fully alert and eating well. A male cat usually takes 24 hours to recover, while a female cat might need 48 hours.

What some religions say about sterilisation.

The MUIS Fatwa Committee states: "Fundamentally, all mazhabs (Schools of Islamic Jurisprudence) allow the sterilisation of animals. After analysing the arguments and position of the different mazhabs and medical opinion from the Society of Prevention of Cruelty Againts Animals (SPCA), the Fatwa committee decides that sterilising cats on the basis of 'maslahat' (general good) is harus (permissible)."

Sol Hanna, President of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia says: "There is nothing in Buddhism that indicates that sterilisation creates unwholesome kamma. While the female cats may experience some suffering after the operation, this is relatively mild, and is inconsequential next to the wholesome kamma of preventing the future suffering of cats that are without homes and being destroyed by the authorities. Plus there is good kamma in helping all the tom cats restrain their lust!"

VOLUNTEERING

I would like to help out -- how can I do so?

First of all, thank you! We are almost entirely volunteer run and we appreciate any help that is offered. You can help in different areas -- we need people to help with TNRM programmes, we have an adoption team, a merchandising sub-committee and a fundraising sub-committee among others. We also have volunteers who help us man booths at exhibitions. We need people who can foster community cats temporarily and who can help in rescue cases. We need designers and translators. There really is something for everyone to do! If there are any special areas you would like to help out in, do write to us at info@catwelfare.org. We'll be happy to hear from you.

If you have any other queries that are not answered in this FAQ, please feel free to contact us at info@catwelfare.org.

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CWS FAQ

GENERAL QUESTIONS

TRAP-NEUTER-RETURN-MANAGE (TNRM)

ADOPTION

STERILISATION

VOLUNTEERING

GENERAL QUESTIONS

TRAP-NEUTER-RETURN-MANAGE (TNRM)

ADOPTION

STERILISATION

VOLUNTEERING