Questionable Ethics and Pure Hostility towards Community Cats

January 5, 2010 at 5:52 pm | Posted in Animal Abuse, Animal Rescue, Animal Rights, TNRM | 32 Comments

Background of the Case:

Last week, the Town Council Property Officer received a complaint from the Eunos Crescent area.  The complainant was upset that a stray cat ran into their house and scared their grandchildren.  They therefore asked that Town Council to remove the cat.  The cat caught was far from black, it was white.  Mr. Snowy, a sterilised cat.

However, the complainant realizing that their one letter to the MP and GM could be so powerful, decided to complain against another black cat which is still running around the neighborhood.

Fact:

The cats in this neighborhood are 100% sterilised.  They do not create trouble for people, do not caterwaul and do not exhibit territorial behaviours.

Prequel:

Being a resident in the area and a Cat Welfare Committee Member, I decided to meet the MP at the Meet-the-People session.  The entire episode just made me lose every little single shred of respect I have for Dr. Ong Seh Hong, the MP of the Marine Parade GRC.

The Session:

I started off explaining the background of the case and what CWS do on the ground to try to control the cat population.  He wasn’t giving me much pockets of conversation window to actually cover what I want in detail and immediately made blanket statements like:

“I walk around the neighborhood.  There are complaints of cats scratching cars.  And when cats poo they do it on the sidewalk.”

It makes me wonder if he really saw the happenings or are they just hearsays he read / heard from other Town Councils and conveniently apply them here.

I appeal to him to balance the sentiments of cat haters and cat lovers.  And he again blanket sweep concluding that there are more cat haters in this neighborhood than cat lovers. (Hmm…really?  But this happen to be the Malay Village area, Geylang Serai…where healthy fat cats run in abundance and feeders try to keep up with the sterilizations).

I offered to do a survey of how many residents don’t mind tolerating cats, like cats, and hate cats.  He said that if this survey was done by me, the responses will swing favorably to cat lovers. Unless I can show him survey results done by independent 3rd parties.

I proceeded to tell him that the complainant does not live in the neighborhood.  He only comes back once in a blue moon to visit his parents.  Why does he have the right to order Town Council to remove sterilised cats?  Dr Ong offered no explanation and just asked me to go confront the complainant to “educate” him.

I responded that the people who need to be “educated” first would be the Town Council.  I asked him what’s the rectification / resolution for this case and he said “NO RESOLUTION”. I asked if he’s going to remove a cat everytime someone complains and he said “yes”.

When I proceeded to “educate” him on the whole VACUUM EFFECT and what CWS do, he scoffed at me and very condescendingly tell me that I can fight all I want but they still act whenever there’s a complaint. He didn’t let me begin what I set out to say, let alone finish.

I never felt so disrespected or patronized when talking to an MP.  I stood up, stared him in the eyes and asked him “SO WHERE’S THE VALUE-ADD FROM THIS MTP-SESSION?” He shrugged his shoulders and walked away…averting my glare the whole time.

Name                    :      Dr Ong Seh Hong
Constituency     :     Marine Parade GRC
Address               :     c/o Marine Parade Town Council
Blk 50 Marine Terrace #01-265
Singapore 440050
Tel                         :     64487529
Email                    :     ongsh@mptc.org.sg

My Om..pinion of the Day:

A Buddhist should show loving kindness (or metta), no?  I didn’t feel any sense of compassion for animals in our brief conversation, let alone any Bodhicitta. And on his CV, his religion was stated as Buddhism? Hmm…Om Mani Padme Om.  Anyway, calling TRUE KIND SOULS….please give Snowy a home.  He’s a very beautiful and friendly cat.

Some Interesting read:

1. “End of Road for PAP MP Ong Seh Hong” http://singsupplies.com/showthread.php?t=24925

2. “PAP Dr. Ong Seh Hong eat and littled in Parliament” – http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.singapore/2009-02/msg00920.html

3. “Of Dr. Ong Seh Hong, Renci Charity Scandal, NEA and the Geylang Serai Indian Rojak Mass Food Poisoning Incident” – http://singaporeshortstories.blogspot.com/2009/04/of-dr-ong-seh-hong-ren-chi-charity.html

4. “It’s your ‘duty’ to procreate – ST, Mar 10” – http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=85678&page=10

32 Comments »

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  1. Did you mention the George Yeo incident? =(

    • I didn’t even have time to say too much. He was standing and not really attentive, keeps turning his head away to look at the next table and also fidgeting big time, like he’s got ants in his pants. He just wanted me out of there. His behaviour was utterly disrespectful. I’m traumatised. 😦

      Mr. George Yeo incident summarized here on Dawn’s blog:
      http://catsandstuff.blogspot.com/2009/02/mr-george-yeo.html

  2. From your conversation with the MP, it really seem that he has a need to change his attitude. Firstly, i am neither a cat lover nor hater, but this are some of my views.

    1st – Do you think the cat really ran into the complainant house? Or the complainant who might be a cat hater cope up an excuse for mp to get rid of the cats.

    2nd – Cats scratching cars? Is that even possible or true? Sound kind of fake to me.

    3rd – I personally think that a survey will be good. Perhaps you guys can like survey a whole block of HDB of residents for feedbacks. Actually most of the people won’t mind a stray cat around their the void decks. It is just that they are niether a cat lover or hater, that why like most singaporeans, as long as the issue does not matter them. They will not bother or too lazy to care. So perhaps you guys can go door by door and collect signature from them.

    4th – I don’t think that it really matters who send the complain letter or whether the complainant does not live in the neigboorhood. In this case, most likely is that the person is old and don’t know how to write. Therefore he/she asks his/her son to write the letter. So even if the MP rejected the letter, he will just send again, but this time round, state down his father name.

    5th – Like most grandparents, they often too adore their grandchildren till the extent that the children are always right. So obviously the grandparents will blame the cats. In this case, the grandparents will ask his/her child to complain the town council. Obviously, even the parents of the grandchildren know that it is not a big deal. But in order to not quarrel with their old dad or mom, they will just follow their order and complain to the town council. Afterall, it is not worth it to get into bad relationship with your family because of a cat. And some cases, old people got bais against stray cat. Sadly, i think most people assume that when they complain to the town council about the cats, they think that cats will be like brought to places like SPCA. But the true is they are put to sleep.

    For example, a kid playing at the playground while the parents are reading newspaper on a bench. Suddenly a stray cats walk pass the kid, and the kid went to grab or do something mean to the cats. The cats scratch the kid back to self defense. Kid cries, parents went angry and complain to town council about stray cat.
    In this case, obviously it is the parents fault who let the kids out of their sight and did not take good care of their own kids

    6th – Athough it is seem that MP got an attitude problem, but if i am the MP. One of the few solutions i could think of is either has sort of events to educate the residents about stray cats. But being pratical, is it worth to spend resources like time and money to educate about loving for stray animals. Instead they can use the money to educate people by having events like environment friendly, kind to elderly, smoke free and teenage problems which are more important.

    7th – About the buddist thing, although i am a free thinker. But i am from a chinese background family, i believe that all living being has the right to live. And no one has the right to take away other people life. I tried not to kill whenever i can. Even for insects, i don’t kill them. The only thing i killed is mosquito. But i can’t expect everyone to be same as me. What if i am rat lover, and i have ways to sterlise rats and make them germ free and make them harmless to the resisdent. Even so, i doubt the resident will accept them. Just for example, even cockroach are harmless, people will still kill it. Caz it disgust people. Like the reason you guys love cats and finding all kinds of reason saying it is harmless. But if cockroaches or rats are harmless too, will you guys show the same love to them?

    Lastly, i apologies if any of my words offended you. And i will sad if all the stray cats around are being put to sleep. It still put a smile on my face when i see a stray cats sleeping or smiling around.
    Peace ^_^

    • Jason, well said. I appreciate your very neutral point of view and also putting things into perspective for other free-thinkers like yourself. For the resident-polling part, he already specifically said that if I or any cat-lovers were to do the polling, the results will swing to our favor. Likewise, if cat haters do the polls, it’ll swing to their favor. Only if we can show him a survey conducted by an independent 3rd party, then conversations can continue. I think it’s just lip service, putting us on a wild goose chase. And if we really pay independent research firms to do it, he’ll just dishonor / disclaim what he had previously said. Veron suggested to fight fire with fire. If someone can complain and make them work so hard, then I shall nitpick and complain about every darn thing I’m unhappy about in the neighborhood to really make them work. I pay conservancy fees, I want them to toil and sweat.

      A little bit of background on the complanaint – Old woman always complain about cats. She hates cats. Her son who doesn’t live here, even more so. He looks down on people living here because he lives in a condominium. He talks loudly like a know-it-all and his mom brags that he holds a high post in some logistic company. She brags that her son is successful, rich and smart because he’s got a university degree.

  3. […] it Was reading this article and it just makes me feel sad how things are turning […]

  4. Hey, if you can drop me an email to confirm your identity, I would like to push for this story to be published on The Online Citizen and reach a wider audience. Whilst, on the one hand, the callous attitude towards our feline friends irks me as a cat-lover, I am also deeply perturbed by the condescending attitude displayed by the MP to one of the residents in his ward.

    Once I clarify your side of the story, I intend to write in to the MP and request for his version before reporting on the incident, hope you will work with me on this, thanks.

    • Hi, sure. I don’t mind at all as all I wrote down were factual accounts of the meeting. I’ll drop you an email with my contacts.

  5. Just did a quick check on Dr Ong Seh Hong. Enter politics in 2001, been walking over since then.

    What to do? Sigh

    • There’s always something that can be done. I’m sure there’s a grievance committee or escalation process if you are not happy with your MP. Unless we live in a communist society otherwise I’m sure something can be done if you push hard enough. Albeit the road to get there might be treacherous and fiends-in-conspiracy might try to drown you, but perseverance is the key to success right? We can’t give up, for the sake of humanity and animal rights.

  6. […] Dolphins in Captivity at IR – My sketchbook: SingPost’s great marketing idea – Your Daily OM: Questionable Ethics and Pure Hostility towards Community Cats [Thanks […]

  7. i wrote in to mptc earlier. seriously, i cant fathom why such people can be MPs. Their condescending attitude is unforgivable. Being a cat lover in a society like ours is hard but we should never give up. The cats have no voices to defend themselves, we are their voices. Just keep writing in and increase the awareness of this issue. Better still, bring in the media, that would keep them on their toes and their attitude in check. With rising cat abusing cases alongside, Im sure the media will highlight irritating MPs’ cases. We must NOT give up!
    Kampateh!

  8. What the poor little cat can do to human? Delike cat need not to harm them in this way! This is indirectly killing them !

  9. When will these million $$$ MPs come down from their ivory towers?

  10. http://singaporecommunitycats.blogspot.com/2009/11/stray-cat-sterilisation-project-at.html

    “A volunteer living in Marine Parade was also recently given a volunteer award by the Marine Parade Community Development Council (CDC) for his work with stray cats. The General Manager of the Marine CDC stated in the program brochure that “we have chosen to focus on those active citizens who, in one way or another, have made a direct impact on the lives of fellow Singaporeans and whose passion and dedication in their chosen areas of community work make a tangible difference to others.” This is encouraging as it is official recognition that cat volunteers can be part of the solution instead of being seen as part of the problem.”

  11. wow, a new meaning to the title MP – Mr Pusher. solves problems by pushing away the problems.
    digusting of him in dividing people into cat lovers,cat haters.Aren’t he supposed to unite his constituents and be a peace-maker instead of ‘cho cho’ here and there.

    easy job as MP, eh?

  12. I believe he did not reply with tact, but I’m not sure if you actually replied with tact as well. Meaning, both sides did not control their temper, and the original intention of the approach got lost.

    Taking the whole attitude business out of the story, let’s just say that what Ong said had some truth. Some of the cats do run into houses, and I have had (many) cases of the cat(s) shitting outside my door because the neighbour downstairs always fed the cat. The cat would eat downstairs, and come up and shit. Don’t appreciate that, really.

    The population of cats have increased tremendously recently, and I’ve been spotting more paw prints on my vehicle parked at the parking lot. My previous car had scratches from paws (identifiable by a streak of 3 scratches) presumably because some cat scared another one while he/she was resting on my vehicle.

    It’s not about being a cat lover or not, but if they are strays and you and other cat lovers really love them so much, please either adopt them, or get them some proper shelter. No, I’m not a cat lover, but neither am I a cat hater, it’s just that they can be a potential nuisance. Sterilization of an animal does not mean it isn’t a potential nuisance or irritant.

    So it’s really a case of putting the action where the mouth is, and if you really love cats so much, I would really prefer if you take some action and get these cats proper shelter, rather than them roaming around being (potential) nuisances.

    • Two questions on your comments:
      1) Why is there an assumption that both sides did not control their tempers? It was in fact a very controlled session where I was trying to appeal for Town Council to balance the sentiments of both cat lovers and non-cat lovers. It’s about resident’s rights. I’ve proactively networked with the property managers to ensure that I’m the first to hear of any cat complaints so that I can mitigate and see if there’s any validity in the complaints and take specific actions if need be, e.g. removing the cat from the area. I think I can do it more humanely than them as they’ll simply send it to be put down while I’ll send it to the shelter.

      2) When you say the population of cats has tremendously increased, can you please show some real statistics? I sterilise 100% of the cats in my area and keep a headcount of them. The population has not increased so far but instead remained the same. With the exception of 3 cats that were abused and killed by kids in the school next door. And now 1 cat which is trapped by Town Council but I’ve asked for that cat back and taken it out of the neighborhood.

      I’m now concerned with what we call the VACUUM EFFECT. When you remove sterilised cats from an area, you upset the natural population control in place and therefore new unsterilised cats will come in to take their place. That would mean I’ll have to spend more money to sterilise these new cats which will later on likely be removed by Town Council again.

      It’s often so easy to blame cats for all small issues people find in their neighborhood, e.g. faeces found on corridors, cat scratches on cars, messy cat food all over the floor, etc. But has it ever occur to people that alot of these issues can be resolved by educating elderly cat feeders, crack down on people not sterilising cats, not letting pet cats roam, not abandoning cats and kittens downstairs, etc. The root cause of the problem is controlling these irresponsible cat lovers.

      We cannot afford to take every stray cat out of public areas and putting them in shelters, just as we cannot take every elderly folk and lock them away in elderly homes. It’s not exactly the most responsible behaviour, and neither it is an intelligent approach, let alone practical.

      I still consider the best way to control stray animal population is through human measures like sterilisation, be it dogs or cats. With the absence of cats, there will be an overrun of rats and cockroaches. When humans upset nature’s equilibrium, a bigger problem brews. “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” teaches an important lesson. And if you still think that removing all cats from the face of this country is the best solution, then imagine how a human face will look like without eyebrows. It’s weird, isn’t it? This analogy I heard from a friend, Dawn. 🙂

      • @omcat: I assumed that it was not a controlled session simply from the part that the both of you were throwing somewhat snide comments at each other, and from the way the matter was phrased (by your own words), it seemed so. If you felt that it was a controlled session, so be it.

        As for education of people not to feed strays – unfortunately the people who feed strays are some “cat lovers” like the many of you who are taking defensive stances here. Unless you can say you guys are going around your own community of cat lovers educating them not to feed strays or whatever, then so be it.

        I did not support nor call for the culling of cats – yes I have a lack of understanding of community cats, but I certainly do not advocate senseless killing of innocent animals. They may irritate me at times, but like I said, I simply called for giving them a home, and not for their being put to sleep.

        I applaud your efforts and spirit, but for the most part, a lot of the people that you wish to target in your “education” policy are like I said, people who love cats like yourself. We cannot assume that feeders are always “elderly people”. In a way, the issue is quite a “domestic” issue, and calling in the government is, like someone above said, a probable waste of resources to them.

        As for the population of cats, no, I cannot provide any statistics because I do not hang around them, nor do I have the fervor to go and walk around and check things out. However, what I do know from what I’ve seen about a week or two back is that there were a bunch of kittens that have just been given birth near the rubbish collection point, and I suppose that’s a good measure of “an increase”.

  13. Dear G
    We who care for cats, wish for less cats just as you do, and we are putting in much effort,money and time to achieve this through evidence-based trap-neuter-release-and-manage “management”. Removing of cats by killing them have not been effective because of the vacuum effect. To achieve a faster rate of success, we need a concerted effort that is not forthcoming from the town council. Marine Parade TC said it was directed by AVA’s directive that indicates sterilisation and culling. But no town council has been assisting caregivers to sterilise the cats in terms of logistics and cost. It has only been culling in response to complaints.
    This has frustrate some caregivers to the point of giving up the TnRm and the cat problems will return to endless cycles of killing, wasting public fund.

    Problems such as yours can be resolved without killing cats by being aware of
    1) Lack of HDB cat ownership regulations means some owners are not compelled to keep their cats indoor, resulting in “cats running around upstairs, and perhaps one running into your flat to scare your kid!” So do appeal to the HDB to remove its archaic ban on cats and replace with regulations.
    2) Lack of responsible feeding education and in fact the current “Do Not Feed” posters encourage “ghost feeding” whereby feeders are afraid of being caught and hence will not remain long enough to clear up leftovers. By acknowledging that there are residents who will feed cats and then work with RCs to educate feeders will result in proper feeding of cats downstairs only.
    3) Cars are at risk of all kind of “injuries” as expected. More damage come from human vandalism, so do we cull human. As paint technologists have indicated, cat scratches are superficial at wax level that can be covered easily with a scratch-cover spray. On a deeper “humanity” level, should we have some reflection if we do not blink an eye to have cats killed over a metallic objects that we developed an abnormal attachment to?

    In this case, a cat was supposed to be killed as it has scared a kid. If the kid has been scared by a pet dog that accidentally ran into the flat, will the complainant ask for the dog to be killed?
    Why this propensity to hate cats and want them killed?

    Perhaps kids here are brought up in very sterile environment here nd hence develop phobias to animals? Is this really what you want your kid to be “nurtured” – fear of cats and other animals?

    As we realise the lack of recognition of interconnectedness of beings and environment is the cause of our eventual demise, we should again reflect on the harm of our very prejudicial attitude towards our fellow animals.

    Lastly just as there are people like you who hide your hatred of cats by stating you are “neutral”, there are people who like cats, if you bother to stroll the heartland with your eyes open. Tolerance is a pillar of the harmony – so please exercise tolerance to what you dislike but others like.

    • @chinky: You have chosen to adopt a very hostile stance towards what I have said, and you have obviously taken assumptions.

      I reiterate, I do not hate cats. You being a cat lover does not mean the whole world is against you. If you would like to assume that I hate cats, then so be it, I hate cats. It’s not like it matters much to me.

      Next, I did not ask for the cats to be killed. I asked for them to be moved to a safer environment that would do good for the human community.

      I may not be a cat lover, but I can recognize a cat when I see one – and by “recognize”, I mean I know exactly which cat I am looking at, out of the bunch of strays that roam my block. It’s not that difficult, considering that I have lived here all my life, and that I have encountered the many generations of strays that have roamed my block, my car park area, and my stairs.

      If you feel that the RC can do more, then please, for goodness’ sake, go and approach the RC and settle this. What makes you think somebody who doesn’t love cats will go and talk to the RC/MPs about educating cat lovers? I’m more likely to be spewing my complaints rather than calling for an education.

      Lastly, with regards to the vehicle comment as “a metal that one has developed an abnormal affection to” – well, it’s a few tens of thousands dollars worth of investment that some may have scrimped and saved to support and pay the maintenance to keep in tip top condition. It’s not just a metal, it’s $$$metal. I did not pay $$$ for stray cats to scratch my $$$metal. That said, I did not pay money for cats to poop outside my door as well. Your argument is weird – cats poop outside my door, and I have to spend my time (and my tax money) to go to the RC and ask them to educate people? I think calling the town council to simply inform them that someone below me is feeding cats is much easier.

      You are right, tolerance is a pillar to harmony, but I simply do not sense your tolerance for the many others who do not fall under the “cat lovers” category.

      Last, but not least, I have said this before, and I will say this again – I did not call for cats to be killed, so stop assuming that the whole world wants your darling stray cats killed and culled and banished to the depths of wherever.

  14. Damn, that sound’s so easy if you think about it.

  15. Dear G
    Precisely people like you think your intolerance of whatever cats did to your thousand-dollar car and “your” space outside your thousand-dollar home, with just a phone call or email complaint to the town council, will result in the cats (often all the cats in the vicinity of a complainant are rounded up) and sent to a paradise somewhere. In case you are truly ignorant or choose not to know, they are sent to the gallow at http://www.ava.gov.sg where they are killed.
    I as taxpayer have a right to object to using public fund to kill cats when there are effective humane solutions to most of the problems related to cats.
    There are many non-cat related nuisances everywhere…do we kill birds because their shit on your precious car can corrode the paint, do we remove every tree as the branches can fall on your car, do we remove other cars from the carparks so that their doors won’t dent your car, etc etc.
    Every other cause of nuisance is ok but not cats…they ought to be decimated from their earth so that you and your car will be “happy”.

    I am not a “cat lover” in the sense that I WANT more cats. Cats suffer from intolerance displayed by fellow human beings like you. I feel the need to speak out for cats as they have been unjustly treated.
    I just feel that many of us have been too corrupted by materialism and selfishness to care about what suffering they have caused other living beings.

    • This is getting personal and I have no wish to quarrel with you, but let me remind you that you turned hostile first in your so-called quest.

      Like I said, if you feel so strongly about your cause, please go and do something about it to the RC and MPs instead of trying to convince me.

      And just to clarify, my complaints revolve more around getting my neighbours to stop feeding the cats than the cats scratching my car. It’s like blaming the government for it being a rainy day. Oh, but okay, I don’t see the need to clarify. I am “one of those people” who “can’t wait to see these cats dead”. Yeah, “I hate cats”. I think you are going to need a sounder argument if you wish to push your tone towards hostility, which obviously I don’t see. Perhaps you should practice more tolerance.

      • And by the way, you can stop replying to this discussion, because I have long seen and understood the points you people were making, but you obviously still have not understood mine.

        I may not be a “cat lover”, but I’m not stupid.

        Some parting words of advise – I applaud and admire your cause, but if you were to treat everybody who doesn’t have an inkling towards agreeing with you as an “enemy”, then you’re going to piss off a lot of people. The world isn’t as dichotomized as you think it is. And more importantly, what you’re doing for your cause is good, but you’re obviously hitting the wrong crowd.

        Good day.

  16. Anybody with a little knowledge will know that~

    – Cats don’t poo on sidewalks. Dogs on the other hand do especially those walked by maids.

    – Cats usually find rough or textured surfaces to scratch in order to file their claws.

    Ignorant & Incompetent! Cast your vote carefully. I know I will!

  17. what about the George Yeo incident? tried to click on the blog link, but you need to be an invited reader before you’re allowed to read it 😦

    https://www.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogspotURL=http%3A%2F%2Fephraim.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F02%2Fstray-cats-i-had-most-unusual-case-at.html

    how did George Yeo help with the cats’ release?

  18. Surely there’s a better way of conveying his message to you than the callous words used.

    Just goes to show the EQ some of these highly paid people have.

  19. Please empathize with the MP. It is not easy to be their position. Argue our points strongly, but don’t expect that others must agree. Both cats and humans are deserving of our care and respect, MP or not, black or white. Foolish people blame cats for scaring their children, why should we blame politicians? Anyone wants to be politicians?

  20. I’m ridiculed but not really surprised that another MP with such attitude has been found. $15k of taxpayer’s money a month to be an MP, pffft!

    Chunky, we all know MPs have to deal with many residents with many different issues, but that doesn’t give them any right to be condescending, or be dismissive. I don’t think the writer is blaming the politician in any way, but what was targeted was the MP’s attitude, thoughts and choice of words.

  21. Tried to read the above comments but got lost along the way…

    One thing stood out though…the thing about no cats in the neighbourhood…

    Used to be a few resident cats under my block, in particular a big black one…unfortunately a mother got scared of it even though it wasn’t doing anything (just because it took a few steps towards her kid!) and soon after that it disappeared. Nowadays I rarely see cats. It’s very sad.

    Kids who are scared of cats are scared precisely because they rarely see cats and don’t understand what cats are. If you just keep reinforcing the idea that cats are dangerous and taking them away once the kid gets scared for no reason, the kid will forever be scared of random creatures on the street.


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