Four SCSP Pilot Zones

The Stray Cat Sterilisation Programme is currently piloted in 4 specific zones:

Chong Pang Division Blks 101 – 161, 165 – 167, 170 – 175, 300 – 318, 350 – 355, 701 – 716 (134 blocks) under Sembawang-Nee Soon Town Council
Funding for sterilisation – Free – 50% funded by AVA & 50% funded by Sembawang-Nee Soon Town Council
Participating clinics – AMK Vet Surgery & Mount Pleasant (Springside)

Yio Chu Kang Division Blks 119 – 128 (10 blocks) under Ang Mo Kio Town Council
Funding for sterilisation – 50% funded by AVA.
CWS will reimburse $10 per cat when a sterilisation claim is submitted.
Participating clinics – Acacia Veterinary Clinic & Mount Pleasant (Serangoon North)

Tampines North Division Blks 461 – 471, 485A – 490B (26 blocks) under Tampines Town Council
Funding for sterilisation – 50% funded by AVA. CWS will reimburse $10 per cat when a sterilisation claim is submitted.
Participating clinics – Light of Life Veterinary Clinic

Macpherson Division Blk 1 – 18 Joo Seng Road, Blk 19 – 36 Balam Road (37 blocks) under Marine Parade Town Council
Funding for sterilisation – Free – 50% funded by AVA & 50% funded by SPCA
Participating clinics – Light of Life Veterinary Clinic

Caregivers in these areas are required to register with the Cat Welfare Society to be able to sterilise their community cats under the programme. To register, please email [email protected] with

Name:
IC:
Blocks covered:
Email:
Phone:

Training on Responsible Cat Management

We held our first training on responsible cat management in the Chong Pang Community Centre on 9 July. The presentations are shared here for those who could not attend.

Responsible Cat Management – Cat Welfare Society
	Caregivers who are doing a service for their community by sterilising and caring for the cats in a responsible manner will now become recognised volunteers. This will help them in their role in assisting the Town Council and authorities in resolving cat-related complaints. To register, please email [email protected] with Name: IC: Blocks covered: Email: Phone:
	In Chong Pang in particular, a door-to-door survey will be conducted to find out about the attitudes of the residents towards community cats as well as educate residents about responsible pet ownership and community cat management. To register, please email [email protected] with Name: Available dates between 18 July to 21 August:
	To keep our community cats safe, it is good practice to document them with photos, descriptions and locations.
	In many areas, the number of cats found at a block is often no more than 3. Areas with more cats are often areas where chronic cat abandonment happens. Households that keep cats without sterilising them will need to be identified and counselled to curb this issue. If they remain recalcitrant, their cases should be escalated to AVA for action.
	Designated feeding stations that are marked by Town Council posters will be implemented in the SCSP zones. There will be clear guidelines about how to use these feeding stations.
Mediation & Engagement – Cat Welfare Society
	Previously, mediators and caregivers may have felt that they were struggling to be heard when faced with cat-related complaints. Community cat management in Singapore has progressed to the point where it is supported by statistics, science, media and government agencies.
	As ambassadors for our cats, we should reflect this confidence in our engagements with members of the public. It is our role as caregivers to lead by example and educate others in a professional manner.
	There will be clearly defined roles and responsibilities for caregivers/volunteers, Town Councils and other government agencies.
	The Cat Welfare Society will be working with the authorities on an education and enforcement programme on responsible pet ownership and community cat management. This will include providing educational materials to residents through the Town Councils and working with authorities on serving advisories and notices to recalcitrant residents.
	As ambassadors confident in the knowledge that community cat management through sterilisation is an effective means to control the population, we should never resort to strident face-to-face or email arguments, even when we feel the other party is being unreasonable. When we engage members of the public, respond to the facts and not the emotions. Find out what are the actual issues the person is facing that leads to their negative reaction to cats. Always be solution-oriented.
	Hwa Chong students assisting the Cat Welfare Society in implementing designated feeding stations as part of their project.
Assisting in Animal Cruelty Investigations – SPCA
	The police are authorised to act in cases of animal cruelty. However, there must be reasonable cause before the police or authorised AVA officers will act in arresting a person, entering and searching a premise and/or seizing an animal.
	This law has its origins from the British Road Traffic Act 1930, therefore the inclusion of ass, mule, sheep etc. Cats are not included in the law. There are currently efforts in Britain to amend the Bill to include popular pets.
	The standard that must be met by the prosecution’s evidence in a criminal prosecution: that no other logical explanation can be derived from the facts except that the defendant committed the crime, thereby overcoming the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
	SPCA contact details • web: www.spca.org.sg • tel: 6287 5355 • add: 31, Mount Vernon Road S.368054 • facebook: www.facebook.com/spcasingapore
Cat Trapping by Mutts & Mittens Foundation
	Tools of the trade – Industrial gloves
	Tools of the trade – Covered shoes
	Tools of the trade – Marker & Masking Tape. It is crucial to mark the trap or carrier with the location (block and street) where the cat was trapped to ensure that the correct cat is returned to the correct location.
	Tools of the trade – Humane Cat Trap. The trap is sprung when a cat steps on the pedal. To trap a cat, set the lever door mechanism, line the bottom of the trap with newspaper and put a 10th of a teaspoon of food in a trail from the door of the trap to the pedal. Put a tablespoon of food at the end of the trap so the cat will be lured all the way in.
	For the comfort of the cat, it is always prefered that the cat is transfered to a carrier after trapping. However, this needs to be done very carefully to prevent the cat from escaping during the transfer.If the cat is to be transported in the trap, cover it with an opaque cloth to calm the cat.
	For hard to trap cats, a net can be used. However, it will require training and practice to be accurate and not hurt the cats in the process. To purchase the net and/or trap, please contact Mutts & Mittens. Mutts & Mittens contact details • web: www.muttsnmittens.com • tel: 6583 7371 / 6583 7372 • add: 11, Pasir Ris Farmway 2 • facebook: www.facebook.com/Mutts&Mittens

Photography by Colleen Goh of www.dedamselfly.com

Media Release | July 11, 2011

CWS one of the partners for Stray Cat Sterilisation Programme

Animal welfare advocates and community cat caregivers will meet the news of the commencement of the stray cat sterilisation programme (SCSP) by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) with a sense of relief. Sterilisation as a means of controlling the community cat population has been carried out by members of the public using their own resources, with support from the Cat Welfare Society’s reimbursement scheme and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal’s sterilisation voucher scheme for the past 7 years. This is after the termination of the stray cat rehabilitation programme by the AVA during the SARS scare.

Sterilisation works

Prior to the introduction of sterilisation as a means to control the community cat population to Singapore in 1998, 13,000 stray cats were culled every year. However, this measure was not able to eradicate the problem of an increasing cat population. New cats due to the uncontrolled breeding would move into the vacuum left by the cats that were caught and culled. With the introduction of sterilisation and continued efforts by members of the public to keep the programme going, the population and culling rates have been effectively halved. Last year, only 5100 were reported to be surrendered and culled. The Cat Welfare Society saw a growth of over 40% in the use of our reimbursement scheme from 2009 to 2010, showing that with more education and increased concern for animal welfare, more members of the public are getting actively involved in a nation-wide effort to control the community cat population through sterilisation, as opposed to destruction. With government funding now available to address the issue, we are confident of making real progress in further reducing the population and culling rates.

Details of the stray cat sterilisation programme

AVA will reimburse 50% of the sterilisation cost, up to $30 for male and $60 for female, and $20 for microchipping. The Stray Cat Sterilisation Programme will be implemented in 4 pilot areas:

Chong Pang Division Blks Blks 101 – 161, 165 – 167, 170 – 175, 300 – 318, 350 – 355, 701 – 716 (134 blocks) under Sembawang-Nee Soon Town Council

Yio Chu Kang Division Blks 119 – 128 (10 blocks) under Ang Mo Kio Town Council

Tampines North Division Blks 461 – 471, 485A – 490B (26 blocks) under Tampines Town Council

Macpherson Division Blk 1 – 18 Joo Seng Road, Blk 19 – 36 Balam Road (37 blocks) under Marine Parade Town Council

There are 5 participating clinics in the programme. They are:

• Acacia Veterinary Clinic
• AMK Veterinary Surgery
• Light of Life Veterinary Clinic
• Mount Pleasant Animal Clinic (Serangoon North)
• Mount Pleasant Animal Clinic (Springside)

Members of the public who would like to be part of the SCSP pilot programme will need to be registered with the Cat Welfare Society as a caregiver and make bookings for sterilisation at the participating clinics through our Catsnip voicebox 7000-CATSNIP (7000-2287647) or email [email protected].

To further reduce the burden of the sterilisation costs of caregivers, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is funding the other 50% of the sterilisation cost in the Macpherson division. The Cat Welfare Society will be reimbursing $10 per cat for the sterilisation of community cats in the other areas under the SCSP programme.

The Cat Welfare Society will continue to subsidise $20 per cat and $30 for the 5th cat onwards for community cats sterilised in other areas not covered by SCSP.

Sterilisation and responsible community cat management goes hand in hand

In preparation for the commencement of the stray cat sterilisation programme, the Cat Welfare Society has had fruitful discussions in the weeks prior with the AVA, National Environmental Agency (NEA), Town Councils and grassroot groups. We will be collaborating with these agencies on

1) Community-level education on responsible community cat management and pet ownership

2) Implementing designated feeding stations with responsible feeding guidelines

3) Establishing a protocol for the handling of cat-related issues With this joint-agency cooperation, we would be better able to address issues such as pet abandonment, other irresponsible pet ownership practices and littering that contribute to the stray cat issues.

We recently held a training session for caregivers and volunteers at the Chong Pang Community Centre on Saturday 9 July on responsible cat management.

The Cat Welfare Society is also conducting a training session for Sembawang-Nee Soon Town Council officers tomorrow on Tuesday 12 July on the Town Council premises.

Why were the 4 specific locations picked for the pilot?

Most of the 4 pilot areas were picked based on the following criteria:

1) Support from Members of Parliament.

2) Good caregiver network.

3) Existing level of cooperation between Town Council and caregivers.

4) Reasonably well-managed areas with controlled population that would benefit from better joint-agency cooperation in dealing with upstream issues like pet abandonment and irresponsible pet ownership.

We have also picked contrasting areas where we would be building up a caregiver network from scratch where previously, caregivers may have given up managing the area due to financial and other constraints. These may also be areas that experience chronic pet abandonment that often destabilise the efforts on the ground to sterilise and manage.

Selecting these types of areas for the pilot will provide a good case study for the agencies involved as to what would be needed to address the issues in the community to bring stability to the area.