Dumped at *23 Area 1. She is too scared to move and did not touch the wet food and ate only a few pieces of kibble. She has been very recently sterilised, tipped and tattooed. Her saggy tummy and the length of the stitches suggest that she was pregnant. She also has a skin problem…. I called Penny… Yes, the pregnant cat that she brought for sterilization for the Malay family was white and with some patches and had a long tail. See here We will pay a visit later.
 | Malay family again *sigh*
The dilemma now is whether to proceed with reporting this family for abandonment now that there is a witness.
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 | Turned out that it is not their cat. All the cats were still around :)
Yes, very poor thing! I put some Fronline and also syringed her Nutrigel and some water. Hope she will not be chased off by Rocky.
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 | Are you able to trap her? |
 | She is really afraid,trying to hide into the walls. |
| Chaos, I can carry her. She is very tame... but what are the chances of finding adopter? I have to leave her there... |
 | Poor thing, she is so fearful. |
 | lynx6119 wrote on Apr 23, edited on Apr 23 A malay lady approached me to chk the cost of sterilisation. She has a 2 yr old male cat. She finds it ex and said for malays, if they sterlz their cat then they have to keep it till it dies. I was like 'Huh???' Her hubby says can put downstair if they dun want the cat. Anyway there r caregivers to feed the cat. Told her abt pest ctrl and her cat may be chase away by the comm cats. Gosh, I offer to get free voucher so they dun hav to pay. She is considering :(
My pl also have an abandoned case 2 weeks ago. Saw 2 Chinese kids looking for a cat 'Twinkle'. Spoke to the mummy. Her relative who doesnt stay here abandoned her cat here bcoz her hubby told her there r ppl feeding cats here. After a few days, she wants her cat back but no where can be found :( I only saw the cat once on the day when her relative abandoned, a handsome unsterilised male, very timid. He was cornered by a community cat. I managed to stop the cat fight but have not seen the cat since that day. Very sad, most probably round up by pest control as they r very active lately ard my area :( |
| Sigh...Received a call about a cat on the 7th floor... it was the new abandonee hiding behind the flower pots. I brought her down to the same corner.. she ate a little wet food. |
| I hope someone who will stirred enough to write to the press or to Suria to highlight the plight of abandoned cats, to clear misconception of sterilisation, to promote help to poor families to sterilise their home cats, to promote information on care of cats, including the use of litter bin and to keep the cats indoor, etc
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 | This truly breaks my heart. How can anyone let that happen? |
| I have put her up for adoption or long-term fostering... but no response yet. |
 | I appreciate everything this site is trying to do, and thank all of you for your love and care shown to the cats and strays of our little country.
However I hope we will be less quick to make assumptions, and especially to point fingers at particular groups in society -- even if experience shows this might be true, our focusing on the problem in such a manner can come across as accusative and even discriminatory. Instead, I hope we can all work more harmoniously and try to understand and resolve differences, whether cultural or simply due to individual personalities.
I'd like to add that I have some years of experience with cat rescue and working with strays, and I do not mean to judge... I have had experiences which tempted me to make stereotyped judgments, but I think that is not the way to go. We should work together for the cats... and creating animosity between any groups of humans will work against us and the cats will be the ones to suffer in the end.
So, thank you for the efforts, love and care to the cats -- I hope this will be taken in the right spirit, and that we all here will be able to give humans at least the same benefit of the doubt that we give to our cats... and refrain from making assumptions or judgmental statements.
Thank you...
--d |
| Thanks for your comments wwej... I have no intention of creating animosity. Fact is that the family that was mentioned did abandon some of their cats downstairs and they still keep saying that they want to put the rest of their cats downstairs, too ... even after Penny brought them for sterilisation. I think there is a need to reach out to Malay families... through radio, newspaper, etc. The Malay caregiveres that I know think so, too.
Caregivers of different races and religion all work together closely and harmoniously :) |
| This is the impression amongst many caregivers, including Malays that if the Malay community can reach out within itself to instill the need to be responsible by keeping their home cats indoor and to have them sterilised, a lot of complaints and abandonment would have been unnecessary. But each time race is mentioned, it becomes a sensitive issue. Some of us wrote as balanced as possible, letters to the press to appeal to the Malay community to take an active role in pet responsibility and some editors did call and explain that because the race was mentioned, the letters couldn't be published.
If we don't face up the reality of the situation, abandonment of cats is jeopardising a successful TnRM and giving a very trying time to caregivers, many on the verge of giving up but continue for the sake of the cats.
In my estate over 4-5 years of "cat management" all the problems that resulted in complaints to the TC (free roaming cats that defecate) and abandonment of litters from unsterilised cats came from Malay households . But fortunately we have Malay caregivers to help us speak to these Malay families to let us bring their cats to be sterilised for free but we still couldn't impress upon them to keep their cats indoor but at least one family called the TC to say "Don't you dare trap our cats!". |
| Meowies -- thanks for clarifying. I do realise that in some cases there is evidence against certain individuals or families. However, perhaps race should not be so much of the focus, and instead the focus could be that it is a "certain family known to abandon" etc.? Especially when writing online as it is probably dangerous ground as well! I understand the need to mention when talking to caregivers or representatives from the particular area, but perhaps it would be helpful to reduce public mention as this could fuel the stereotype.
Remember also that there are individuals and families of ALL cultural groups (whether race, religion, age, gender, class, etc. etc.) that are abusive or neglectful to pets -- and conversely, the same applies to people who are wonderfully loving, caring and generous! So I think culture should be a bit less of the focus, as compared to the evidence implicating a particular individual or family.
Unfortunately it is easier to identify the cat issue with Malay-Muslims, since they are averse to keeping dogs. Because of this "structural" or pre-defined limitation, it might seem to be a disproportionate representation. But I'm sure there are lots of families of other cultural backgrounds who cause problems with cats.
Vegancatsg -- I agree completely that each social/cultural group should educate and reach out to itself. However, it is unfortunate that pointing out social/cultural differences will inevitably increase tension -- and race is a particularly sensitive subject (how ironic, with Racial Harmony Day and everything else we try to have in Sg). I feel that the best way to prevent such tension is for the individuals in each community to take the lead within that community, as outsiders will naturally be seen as judgmental, no matter how neutral their stand, or positive their intentions! Therefore I think that when it comes to mentioning particular social groups, especially in writing (since, as I mentioned earlier, that's entering dangerous ground), perhaps it is best left to the members of that community to make the sensitive points. Being part of the community themselves, they are much less likely to be condemned as discriminating. They can act as the "public figure" whilst those of any other cultural background can do the "behind-the-scenes" work... if that makes sense?
You are definitely correct in saying that the problems jeopardise many caregivers' efforts. However, I still feel that "facing up to the reality of the situation" does not mean having to specify race or any cultural aspect. "Facing up" would just mean dealing with each individual or group who is known to cause problems... regardless of social/cultural background. I'm sure you would agree since you also raised the point that there are caregivers of many different races who are equally willing to help the cats. Thus, I think you do acknowledge that race is not the main issue.
Again, I am active myself, so not just "talking only" with no action; also I would like to thank you all for all your hard work and effors with the cats. I do not mean to criticise nor be contentious, and I am grateful that I have not been interpreted wrongly as yet. The only reason I wanted to point out all this is that I felt that some statements were a bit misleading, for example the main post which hinted at suspicions that the abandoned cat had been from the Malay family... when it was later found out that that was not the case. People who did not check back for updates would not have realised the resolution of the issue, and may have left the site with damaging misconceptions. Similarly I felt that the exasperation in the comment that it was a Malay family "again" might perpetuate the negative stereotype that others may have. My point is that although you, Vegancatsg, personally do know Malays of both camps (problem-solving and problem-causing), your comment may have left readers with a negative impression.
So, I guess I am just suggesting that we all be a bit more cautious with what we say, especially publicly and in writing, because it has a fairly large potential to leave others with damaging misconceptions. I know it is difficult as I have sometimes felt tempted to stereotype members of certain ages, ethnicities, social classes, etc. -- but I really think that what we write for others to see is quite an important thing to be careful about.
Again, thank you all for understanding what I am trying to do -- and for all you have done and are still doing for our lovely strays and home cats too! :) |
Comment deleted at the request of the author.
Comment deleted at the request of the author.
| We are all human.....and we do get frustrated. Sometimes we just want to "whip" some people into action but we still fail. However we remain focus that our motivation is to improve the welfare of the community cats and to stop the killing.We will just go ahead and do what each of us humanly can and hope that one day some people will do more than just saying "wo-men hern ai moaw!" Making the assumption that Fern came from a Malay family was exactly in our mind because of our experience and not based of prejudice. We were just being frank and that may be viewed as insensitive by others. But caregivers, including Malays, who knows the reality out there, understand this attitude and do something about it (in fact I know of Malay caregivers who uttered the same thing when they saw new abandonees in their estates!). Please divert any anger about such remarks into ACTION and decrease abandonment amongst the Malay community - find out the reasons and institute measures. http://tippedearclan.wordpress.com/2008/03/26/pm-malay-families-responsible-pet-ownership/Posted on March 26, 2008 by calsifer I have been mulling over this, not least because of our most recent encounter. We are also hardly the only ones frustrated by the nonchalant attittude of irresponsible cat-owners, who are made up mostly of Malays. When even risk of death is not enough persuasion to make them take responsibility for their own pet cats, what else can we do? Who can we call upon to get the message across? Even Malays who understand the importance of being responsible and sterilisation aren’t getting through, so it’s hardly a simple case of communication malfunction. Yes, this is a sensitive topic, and we have had our share of indignant Malay readers. But is being carefully non-specific about the race of problem cat owners in our midst the way to go? I feel not. If the PM has seen fit to tell the Malay community of a problem within that he woud like ot see resolved more than once, why should we tip-toe around the issue of irresponsible cat-ownership within the community? It affects not only the pet cat’s safety, but also community cats and good neighbourliness too. Can you imagine the day an article like this appears, but with the headline: PM Lee urges Malay cat owners to sterilise their pets, keep them indoors and be responsible? In an alternate reality maybe. |
| Vegancatsg -- I am sorry that in trying to explain myself I probably failed to emphasise my central point. You are so right, we are all human and we get so so frustrated whenever anything happens that jeopardises our efforts for the cats, be it caused by human or nature.
Please understand that I was not accusing nor destructively criticising, but that in essence, I feel that to post such statements and comments on a website that can be publicly accessed is probably not the best idea. Yes, experience has showed us many things -- but to say them, especially in places where the less-experienced public may be led astray, is not a good idea. In fact it may cause that less-experienced group of people to develop feelings or ideas that actually get in the way of our TNRM and cat-care efforts.
Again, I am sorry my discussion was misinterpreted or taken with offense. I hope I have made myself clearer here.
I would also like to reiterate that I AM involved with community cat caregiving, TNRM, and cat rescue; also, I was not angry at what anyone said here, I was merely trying to encourage a more neutral tone in public statements. Therefore, I hope you will understand that I do not appreciate your request for me to "Please divert any anger about such remarks into ACTION" -- especially when I have stated several times before that I am involved, not simply talking.
I hope I have cleared up any misunderstanding.
Meowies -- thank you for letting us have this discussion here. |
| Dear wwej
"Please divert any anger into ACTION" is not meant for you personally but meant for anyone who feel offended because the race is mentioned.I don't know who you are and am not under the impression that you are angry but I do know that you are sharing a concern about arousing negative reaction to the mention of "race". I feel that sometimes we need to make known the "on the ground" sentiments of how some if not alot of caregivers feel about the cause of abandonment. It will be good for all, including Malays, to examine why such sentiments arise and how to reduce such sentiments. As it is, we do not see any active public education amongst the Malay community to address this issue.
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