The perpetuity of ignorance and intolerance

Complainants strike again.

(Click for details)

Yesterday 2 letters appeared in mypaper. Details on the Unoffical Cat Welfare Society Diary. It’s the same gamut of typical calls/justifications to “solve the problem”:

• Fear of cats spreading disease to children
• I don’t hate cats but they shouldn’t appear in my field of vision
• Feeders are irreponsible, causing messes, so instead of fining them, remove the cats who could not have cleaned up the mess, as Dawn said.

Rather than re-rant, I ask that you check out the CWS diary as I agree with the blog writer, Sarah, who deciphered and commented on both letters. I would add that it is rather surprising at both letter writers’ claims that they have been given the pinball treatment by AVA and Town Councils, which is rather more likely, and all too common, for caregivers, or even hackjobbers at their beck adn call, and whim and fancy.

One of the whinge letters has been reprinted in asiaone, and it is rather unfortunate and, imo, bad taste on the publishers’ part to display one of the pictures originally accompanying the recent NTU Cat Cafe Society article.

Incidentally, 3 letters rebutting these 2 letters were printed today. glad to see new and different names speaking up.

Such complaints are not the first, and they’re definitely not the last we’ll hear of it. Take for example the tasteless goings-on on a morning radio show that seemed to have started this latest round. Ignorance and intolerance still run rampant in cyberlongkang, as evidenced here and here (which were quite amusing in their exasperating blinkeredness).

Singaporeans need to sit down and take a good long think: Why the difference in acceptance level in how our cats are killed?

4 more dead cats found in Pasir Ris

Over the weekend past, Pasir Ris has 4 more dead cats joining the family of 3 killed over the previous weekend.

In fact, Tampines also seems to have a case. From Dawn’s blog:

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

More abuse

More cats found dead in Pasir Ris and at least one more suspected abuse case in Tampines. If you come across an abused cat, remember to get a necropsy done and to file a police report even if you have no suspects. This helps if you DO eventually find the suspect and you have the previous cases on file.

One thing also to remember is not to narrow down the list of suspects prematurely. I remember a case where someone reported seeing an older man of a certain race - the suspect turned out to be a younger man who was of a different race. Some witnesses may not be trustworthy - it doesn’t mean that they don’t mean well, but I read recently that most witnesses of a crime are unreliable because everyone perceives the situation differently and because it happens to fast. If you tend to look for someone based on rather sketchy evidence, you may let the actual suspect slip away undetected.

Another thing to remember of course is that if a witness is not willing to testify, then the evidence is as good as useless. A witness has to give firsthand evidence - hearsay is NOT good enough to stand up in court.

Posted by Dawn at 9:51 AM

Please note that unlike human crimes, animal abuse charges cannot be brought before the court unless there’s a witness. Apparently, forensics or other methods of crimes solving don’t apply to animal abuse cases, so nevermind if you’ve evidence like murder weapons and so on.

Here’s the article about the latest victims in Pasir Ris:

May 12, 2008

4 cats found dead - 3 with stab wounds

By April Chong

ANOTHER four cats have been found dead in Pasir Ris, bringing the death toll to seven felines since May 2.

Of the four, three were found in Pasir Ris Town Park on Monday, within 50m of one another and with abdominal puncture wounds.

The fourth cat was found nearby, in an open field near Block 536. It had a fractured jaw.

It had no other observable wounds, and it is not known whether its death was related to that of the other three.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), alerted to the deaths, said the wounds on the three in the park were stab wounds, not the result of dog bites.

On May 2, three cats were found in Pasir Ris Street 21, doused with what is believed to be thinner.

Two died and the third was eventually put down as a result of its injuries.

The SPCA is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person or persons involved in this spate of cat deaths.

The SPCA may be contacted on 6287-5355, Extension 9.

Disaster Relief - Where does your help go?

By now, anyone not living in a vacuum would know about the Myanmar cyclone/flood and Chinese earthquake. While China’s situation, though newer, appears to be more manageable due to a more sympathetic and cooperative hand at the helm, the Myanmarese victims are still facing dire conditions. (Though it seems some of Myanmar’s problems are being reenacted)

Everywhere, people are rushing to help and donate, in personal or corporate or governmental capacities. However, with the situation in Myanmar, with aid still slowly trickling in (at the wilfulness of the junta), food and much needed help may not be reaching the victims, or used by the people it is intended for. Even when Burmese extend helping hands, the junta slaps them, and victims receive meagre rations of rotten rice while relief effort-delivered good quality rice was kept for itself. In fact, the Myanmarese rulers continues to seize aid resources while refusing to allow aid workers to enter and do the important work of helping and relieving the suffering of the victims.

Therefore, it is important to channel your aid through effective mediums. Take note especially of Otterman’s: Mary Callahan on “donations in relief of the disaster in Burma/Myanmar”. Also note this post by mrsbudak:

Aid to Burma

14th May, 2008 at 9:17 AM

For those who are keen to donate to help the people of Burma, two posts for consideration:

From elyrie: Burma crisis: an addendum
From the Global Refuge website:

According to GRI’s partners inside Burma, the death total has already hit 100,000 but could be as high as 250,000. This is a more realistic estimate than the official number of 40,000 dead released by the junta government, especially since very little lifesaving aid has reached the people of Burma. Oxfam believes the number could rise to 1.5 million if no aid is allowed into the country…the people of Burma have gathered into more than 700 camps in Yangon and left to cope alone without government help. There is no good drinking water and very limited food available in the camps…
——————————-
An update from my friend, who is currently in Bangkok:

• All NGO and UN agencies have been put on delay for visas, and 9 out of every 10 visas are being rejected;
• GRI is currently moving supplies overland through Thailand into Burma by trucks;
• Airlift of supplies will begin this week;
• GRI is one of only two groups granted access to the delta areas, and they are assuming a leadership position in the Logistics cluster with WFP; other agencies such as IMC, Operation USA and IRC are offering resources but GRI is covering transportation and distribution due to their access to the delta areas.

Once again, if you want to give money, please think about helping out GRI - they have people and access within Burma. Most other agencies have resources, but not the kind of distribution network that GRI has.

In Singapore, a woman who donated SGD$100,000 in cash at the Red Cross for the Myanmar efforts. Perhaps the kind woman has done her homework and determined that the Red Cross is the best conduit through she can help the victims. However, while I do not discredit her or the Red Cross, we must remember to look in our own backlaned: we already have the old NKF saga, numerous sequels, and even some questionable fund-raisers to remind us that not everybody works with altruism.

How many Singaporens will continue to blindly donate? Everytime someone cries, whether it is wolf or otherwise, Singaporeans dig into their pockets without asking, like members of a herd docilely changing directions without asking the leader what’s happened to cause the change. I find that disturbing, because not only does doing so runs the risk of enriching only the undeserved, it may even impede the aid process when resources are not channelled effectively. Singaporeans should open their eyes, ask questions, and SEE where their kindness end up.

As ASEAN set to meet on Myanmar aid set on May 19 (how late is this?), and Aid Begins to Reach Myanmar Cyclone Survivors at last, we must not forget the animal victims either. WSPA is trying to provide aid to the animal victims. Please help if you can, because while no doubt humanity place emphasis on the succour of the human victims, the animal victims have their place in the victims’ lives, especially in the aftermath:

Philip Russell MBE, WSPA’s Director of Disaster Management, said: “No-one else, Governments, humanitarian NGOs or owners have the resources to care for these animals, most of which are owned by poor impoverished families. If those that survived die, so too will the livelihoods of thousands of people.”

He added that, as WSPA so often finds, when operating in emergencies many families will have or be in the process of selling off their remaining livestock at severely reduced prices to ensure some monetary value for immediate subsistence, mainly because they cannot now keep them alive.

Compassion often eludes feral cats; groups out to save them

From Dawn’s blog:

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Article on cats

Here’s an interesting article about cats in USA Today.

Posted by Dawn at 12:46 PM

It’s about TNRM and sterilisation. There are opponents of course, but we must also remember that the homeless animals have a right to roam, however that threatens their lives. We must also be very clear that sanctuaries are not the answer.

Therefore, the homeless animal population have to be managed within the environment they live in, ie our streets. Is it doable? from our experience, yes. It takes time and effort, but any bit helps. However, grassroots efforts like ours can only truly succeed with complementary policies that are effectively and actively implemented. This is because we can manage the existing population, but we’re powerless to stop the population growing or changing due to pet dumping, pest control roundups, or irresponsible pet owners who contribute to the problem by letting their unsterilised pets roam freely. Too bad that so far, Singaporean authorities are still waltzing around the issue, using outdated reasoning for maintaining the cat-specific ban that affects 85% of Singapore residents. Even when we have the tacit agreement of authorities to collaborate, we TNRM citizens of Singapore are treated like we’re nuisances or convenient hacket jobbers for the KS TCO, sometimes even the complainant. We definitely have a strange Love-Hate Relationship with TNRM, ala section 377A.

Look at this list in the article. It will be a happy day if we had initiatives similar to these for the homeless cats here.

• PetSmart Charities will announce in July a $13 million spay-neuter program in Los Angeles. A clinic in Burbank, which Best Friends Animal Society in Utah also is helping fund, will sterilize 20,000 feral cats a year. PetSmart Charities has committed $862,000 to feral cat programs in Austin and Dallas as part of a $5.5 million five-year grant to Texas cities.
• The Humane Society of the United States has just completed a CD/DVD. Effectively Managing Feral Cats will be free to 6,000 shelters, communities and feral-cat advocates through a PETCO Foundation grant. The Humane Society also holds workshops and has given thousands of dollars to a few small groups launching initiatives to protect feral cats.
• Alley Cat Allies, which advises individuals and groups on feral-colony management, is embarking on major research to collect data about ferals and the people who help them. The non-profit group also will launch a year-long educational campaign beginning Oct. 16, National Feral Cat Day, and will push for public disclosure on how many feral cats shelters take in and euthanize to “make more transparent” every community’s “animal-control practices applied to feral cats, which most often rely on lethal control methods,” president Becky Robinson says.
• No More Homeless Pets in Utah runs a sterilization program and works with city, county and animal control officials to develop alternatives to trapping nuisance homeless cats and depositing them at shelters — “a practice which almost guarantees euthanasia,” says the group’s Gregory Castle. A decrease in the number of cats in colonies and concurrent lower euthanasia rates have been “dramatic” in some locations, he says.

 

The full article for reference here

After receiving his rabies vaccine update, Sgt. Stripes is released into the area where he was caught earlier in the day in Burlington County, N.J.By Joan Fairman Kanes for USA TODAY

Compassion often eludes feral cats; groups out to save them

By Sharon L. Peters, Special for USA TODAY

Feral cats — nearly invisible and often reviled — have prowled into the spotlight.

The free-roamers with an aversion to humans have grabbed headlines this spring because of a bounty on their heads in Iowa, a threatened roundup and disposal in Fairfax County, Va., and other elimination plans across the country.

But the cats also are receiving attention of a different sort.

Enlarge

Two feral cats warily check out traps that have been baited with tuna and placed where the cats are normally fed by caregivers in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Grass-roots groups and animal-welfare organizations are directing money and energy toward helping the tens of millions of feral cats that skulk about college campuses, cluster around back-alley trash bins, swarm among the rocks at beach communities and colonize the nether-reaches of suburban parks, military installations and abandoned barns and fields:

•PetSmart Charities will announce in July a $13 million spay-neuter program in Los Angeles. A clinic in Burbank, which Best Friends Animal Society in Utah also is helping fund, will sterilize 20,000 feral cats a year. PetSmart Charities has committed $862,000 to feral cat programs in Austin and Dallas as part of a $5.5 million five-year grant to Texas cities.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | Texas | Los Angeles | Dallas | Virgina | Iowa | Utah | Austin | Harris | Humane Society | Burbank | Fairfax County | Best Friends Animal Society

•The Humane Society of the United States has just completed a CD/DVD. Effectively Managing Feral Cats will be free to 6,000 shelters, communities and feral-cat advocates through a PETCO Foundation grant. The Humane Society also holds workshops and has given thousands of dollars to a few small groups launching initiatives to protect feral cats.

•Alley Cat Allies, which advises individuals and groups on feral-colony management, is embarking on major research to collect data about ferals and the people who help them. The non-profit group also will launch a year-long educational campaign beginning Oct. 16, National Feral Cat Day, and will push for public disclosure on how many feral cats shelters take in and euthanize to “make more transparent” every community’s “animal-control practices applied to feral cats, which most often rely on lethal control methods,” president Becky Robinson says.

•No More Homeless Pets in Utah runs a sterilization program and works with city, county and animal control officials to develop alternatives to trapping nuisance homeless cats and depositing them at shelters — “a practice which almost guarantees euthanasia,” says the group’s Gregory Castle. A decrease in the number of cats in colonies and concurrent lower euthanasia rates have been “dramatic” in some locations, he says.

All major efforts involve trapping, neutering and returning the cats to their colonies. This method thwarts future litters and reduces the yowling, spraying and fighting that annoy humans. In the process, the cats usually are vaccinated, treated for minor problems and given a notch in the ear to identify they are sterile. Over time, the colony will grow smaller through attrition.

“TNR is not only the most humane, it is the most practical way of stabilizing the populations and … reducing them,” Castle says.

“Some New York neighborhoods no longer have feral colonies, or the colonies are much smaller,” says the ASPCA’s Aimee Hartmann, which holds workshops throughout the city, performs hundreds of sterilizations and loans traps to groups employing the method.

Scores of other groups participating in the practice report similar results.

Opponents speak out

The TNR method is not without detractors. Many veterinarians refuse to do such sterilizations because they say cats shouldn’t live outdoors because they become victims of the elements, predators and vehicles. And some bird and conservation groups say feral cats can decimate bird and small-mammal populations and spread disease.

Advocates counter that ferals exist because house pets were set loose or escaped, they adapted to survive, had litters, and now, a generation or more removed from being house cats, they can’t be tamed. And refusing to deal with that reality leads to more litters and more cats killed once they become public nuisances, are captured, taken to shelters and euthanized because no one will adopt them, advocates say.

Moreover, most ferals don’t live short, hideously deprived lives but are quite healthy and less apt to harm wildlife than toxins and development that overtakes habitats, says Julie Levy of the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, an expert in infectious disease and feral cats. When neutered and vaccinated, such animals live many years.

A right to roam free

“For a long time, the prevailing feeling was that these animals aren’t deserving of help,” Robinson says.

But attitudes are changing.

“There are people who have been taking care of these colonies for years, getting up before dawn, leaving food and water.” Once regarded as odd, they’re increasingly regarded as “unsung heroes.”

Today, a live-and-let-live attitude is taking root, she says.

A 2007 Harris survey found that 81% believe feral cats should be allowed to live out their lives roaming free.

Still, many people have never seen a feral colony and are unaware of their numbers, which, combined with strays, could be as high as 80 million, Levy says, so these animals occupy a lower rung on the public’s concern-about-creatures hierarchy.

Advocates insist the separate-and-unequal distinction is specious.

“A good proportion of these free-roaming cats were once owned, or they are one generation removed from house pets,” says Susana Della Maddalena of PetSmart Charities. “We don’t think it’s fair to exclude them from help.”

ANIMALS: PETS AND THE REST

• Foreclosures slam doors on pets, too
• For abuse victims, leaving with pet important
• Stem cell therapy offers hope for pets dogged by pain
• Index: More pet stories from Sharon L. Peters

FERAL VS. STRAY

• Not all outdoor cats are ferals. Nancy Peterson, feral cat expert for the Humane Society of the United States, says the population known as free-roaming cats includes:
• Indoor/outdoor cats that roam neighborhoods. These are pets, and wandering does not make them “wild.”
• Cats that were once pets but have been abandoned or gotten lost and have learned to survive on their own or joined feral colonies. These cats, when captured, can usually be re-socialized to live with humans. But their initial reaction to being captured is often frantic, and they can be mistaken for being feral.
• Feral cats, which are generally one generation or more removed from being house pets, and their offspring aren’t socialized to humans and can rarely be tamed. (But their kittens, if caught young, can become pets.)

ONLINE RESOURCES ON FERALS
Hundreds of websites can aid people looking for info about feral cats. Among them:

• Alley Cat Allies maintains a comprehensive assortment of info ranging from events and conferences to basic Q&A to legalities at alleycat.org.
• Maddie’s Fund, which finances scores of animal causes, has nearly 500 ferals articles and resources. Click here for a good starting point, for interviews with ferals experts and details about model feral programs.
• Go to the American Veterinary Medical Association for articles and debates about feral management and the group’s official position on TNR.
• The Humane Society of the United States has lots of feral cat information updated regularly.
• The American Bird Conservancy says free-roaming cats kill hundreds of millions of birds a year (a charge disputed by others who say there are easier-to-catch food sources) and have launched a campaign called “Cats Indoors!!“
• No More Homeless Pets in Utah’s site, utahpets.org, has informational aids, including solutions to conflicts and trapping instructions.
• Downloadable documents — from trapping tricks to post-surgery guide — are at FixNation.org.
• At feralcat.com there’s info and links to many resources and guides, including how to tame a feral kitten.
• Go to aspca.org/tnr for info and guidance from the ASPCA. There’s also a list of upcoming training sessions in New York.

End crab fishery, plant trees

Reading the full article, I felt a supernaturally surreal but familiar sense of deja vu, and not just once. Honestly, what does reading this passage remind you of?

In 1995, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation characterized the blue crab population as “perilously close to collapse,” and it called for a year-round deep-water sanctuary - a no-catch zone.

In 1998, experts at the Chesapeake Bay Program said watermen had “fully exploited” the blue crab population, and Maryland officials reported the worst harvest on record. If you don’t have a watch, that was a decade ago.

No Maryland politician I know has had the guts to do what was needed to save the blue crab - call for an absolute moratorium on the harvest.

Now, we are on the cusp of crustaceous collapse, and we have this call for federal disaster relief - and $15 million to provide jobs for the watermen while they take some time off from pulling pots.

But still no call for a moratorium.

All we’re doing, by agreement of the governors of Maryland and Virginia, is shortening the season of harvest.

On this issue, Maryland and Virginia form a single state - the state of denial. This kind of tinkering with a diminishing wild species constitutes classic denial pathology - the patient has a serious problem and either refuses to recognize it or recognizes it but thinks a little sip now and then won’t hurt.

All through the 1990s, when the crab population was stressed, the human population still took an average of 42 million bushels of crabs out of the bay annually. Aggressive harvests, combined with loss of vital bay grasses in the great crab nursery of Tangier Sound, led to this.

We’ve been over-harvesting crabs for years - and, by science and instinct, we knew it - but we’ve been too weenie to do anything about it.

And still so.

(From End crab fishery, plant trees)

From fishes, like sharks to non-fish marine denizens like seals, we can do with a bit more resolve to do something about it. Not half-brained measures, calls-to-arms with caveats and loophole exceptions or flagging political bravado that Japan’s whale factory ship, the Nisshin Maru could sashay through.

This graph is the reality of the overexploitation we do to the oceans. It’s in the way we fish, harvest or otherwise use (and OVERuse) and waste the sea bounty within our industrialised reach. It’s not just our taste for fish, perhaps we should also ask ourselves: Must meow can haz fish?

Before this graph devolve into a permanent flatline, the people of the world has to do something.

Tarzan Boy and his beloved toy

Was alerted to this by a friend. It’s a really heartwarming story, and may be supportive evidence that you can try to run but you can’t hide when you get enlisted by whatever powers in charge of kitty affairs to be a kitty parent. I wish the authorities will open their eyes and SEE, and revoke the stupid rule that prohibits 85% of Singaporeans from having cats.

Meet Tarzan Boy and his beloved toy

He’s cuddling his favourite toy in the picture:

“Since young, he always carried around a toy, a wrist pad that’s made to look like a cat.

“He’s very attached to this toy, carrying it around everywhere and he will make noises like he’s talking to it.

“Well, he’s now three years old but he still does it!” she said.

Must meow can haz fish?

Greening oneself is difficult enough, let along greening the precious furry bundle you slave for.

No one ever said it would be easy, and there are no quick-fixes, despite some parties wanting the world to believe so. Really, looking at the whole picture, the questions meow would ask, if he or she knew, might not just be restricted to Hey, is that tuna good for me? come dinner time.

Take a look at this picture. No, it’s not an abstract artsy thing.

(source)

It’s from an article with the ominous title: ‘Only 50 years left’ for sea fish. It is a sister article to this more recent one: Quota calls fail to catch the drift.

So, what’ll we all eat if there’s no tuna or salmon for gourmands, furry or otherwise?

The answer is obvious but perhaps us humans would find ourselves tied up in prettier knots than the kinks in our community cats’ tails. But the fact is that fish is not that great a treat for kitties; it’s not even a conventional staple despite what we believe.

Before the Da-Da-Dum-DUM starts growing pimples on your goose, consider: while the Polar Bear has become the poster child for the cause, nothing is independent. The scalies doing the gill thing in the oceans are as affected by the ice furries by this climate and environment business , too bad, not all fish are created equal. (Learn more about fish as a food source here).

And while we’re on the topic of kitty fare, this comprehensive essay beautifully illustrates the mechanics of cat food and cat health that we’ve tried to achieve with our kibble rants. It’s not a tummy soothing thought, but our overexploitation of seafood affects not only our own future, we’re also dragging the animals that do eat fish as a staple along (pdf).

SOS: Help put the nail in Canadian Seal Killing

Early this year, I had asked you to Help the seals - just 1 min of your time. Help is still needed, and this time, it seems there is hope of finally stopping this barbaric and senseless slaughter for good.

Please read this care2 message and take action. Or if you’re so inclined, follow the SeaShepherd’s guidelines and suggestions and write a letter. (It is also a great quickie cheatsheet for boning up on the situation now.)

Unsubscribe | Forward to a Friend | Take Action

Dear friend, Global pressure on the seal hunting industry is working! Even while the Canadian government futilely attempts to convince the world that the hunt is humane, the