Saturday, April 26, 2008
ST (26-4-08)
Today's forum page had AVA's response to last week's letter. Two dogs have already been caught and the rest will follow. I also hope the cats are not going to get rounded up too because the letter mentioned cats being killed in the area. There are already threats according to a caregiver there, as I mentioned in this post, against the cats.
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14 comments:
I hope the survivors run away and dont come back. Whoever did this, guess your happy now? I only feel sorry for the dogs that died
Hope the caregivers can a least safe the remaining dogs by chasing them away...cat and dog caregivers in the area must work together to protect both species. So sad that it had to come to this point of calling AVA
I totally agree with you veganmeow. There must be other ways to solve the problem without resorting to calling ava to cull the dogs.
It is exactly the same way people who want cats "removed" would do - call TCs or pest control.
One would expect people who are cat care-givers (their community cats are in the same position & could be "removed") would be MORE understanding. This is very sad.
Again, AVA appeared to have acted without consulting the stakeholders: e.g., the residents, animal groups and caregivers. So typical of the high-handed, arrogant and "we-know-what's-best-for you" attitude of some government departments.
AVA is again acting unprofessionally and just a "killing" dept. It has not learnt from the macaque incident to consult experts but again wrongfully labelled these abandoned dogs as "wild dogs" to justify its killing by using words like "impounding" and "culling". AVA is worse than any such dept in 3rd world countries.
Similarly dept in Hong Kong rehome their "impounded" animals. Here it only rehome the "cute little chihuahua" smuggled in from JB and didn't even have the decency to offer to the guy who paid $10K,much more the fine imposed on a serial killer of cats!
Useless AVA!
The level of understanding of animals is summed up by HDB's ruling on cats
Cats are not allowed to be kept in HDB flats as they are nomadic in nature and are difficult to be confined within the flats. Due to the nomadic nature of cats, the nuisances caused by cats such as shedding of fur, defecating/urinating in public areas, noise disturbance etc would affect the environment and neighbourliness in our housing estates. In view of this, HDB has the policy of not allowing cats to be kept in HDB flats.
HDB and AVA are both under MND.
Anonymous - I don't think that the original letter writer wanted the dogs killed. BUT, I do think that it was very similar to people who ask for the cats to be removed - and either don't want to know or don't want to think about where the cats will go. We can't claim ignorance if we ask that complainants don't either.
The problem is that AVA has to respond to public feedback, and the writer of the original letter, a member of the public, mentioned that these were wild dogs which could attack people.
If we know that this is the fate of animals that end up in AVA, we should continue to argue that this isn't what should happen to them - and I believe many of you have done that. Good work!
On the other hand, we as caregivers and people who think about the welfare of animals have to be even MORE careful - if a caregiver complains that a dog is killing the cats and wants them removed for that and other reasons, it give even more credence to what the AVA is doing. In fact, yskat - they can turn around and say that they ARE listening to the stakeholders - and the stakeholders have asked for the dogs to be 'removed' for the writer of the original letter clearly mentioned community cats being killed as one of the reasons that they fear the dogs.
Yes, it's really silly to complain about one species of animal and not expect a repercussion to the other species.
I have had stray dogs running through my estate and though I was really upset when a few cats got killed over the past years, the numbers killed won't beat what the TC and AVA have been achieving.
We just don't need to add to the number of animals (cats and dogs) killed by complaining about them.
The stray dogs I have encountered were too timid and cautious to even accept food put down in front of them (I'v tried that), much less to "attack" us for food.
We must all work hand in hand for the sake of the hapless voiceless animals in our midst.
Most "stray" dogs are really very scared animals and not "killer" dogs. Killer dogs are as common as Hannibal Lecter in our midst.
Some dogs that are cornered become defensive. But that is not the same as being aggressive. That is self-defence.
Some dogs may gang up and act brave but if you break up the pack - they are as scared as anything.
I have ex-feral medium-sized dogs at home and some came as adults.
Dawn, you are right in saying that AVA can say that they are merely acting on the wishes of complainants. But my point is that there's more than one group of stakeholders. And AVA is clearly listening only to one side of the story, and has no interest in finding out more. They are not the "neutral" party that they often like to imagine themselves to be.
yskat - true enough. They rarely are neutral as you say. Unfortunately even though it's only one person who has written in this case, if that person mentions community cats, there may be a bias to say that caregivers want the dogs removed. I don't believe that to be the case necessarily.
Obviously the orginal letter writer is the caregiver for the cats. As a caregiver, she knows very well that calling ava means killing. Sad to say that she is only a cats lover. She loves only cats. Only cats life are the most previous to her whereas others deserve to die.
This is really sad to hear. Why couldn't the caregiver tried scaring the dogs away. Once bitten twice shy, they won't come back.
We as caregivers are not just 'cat' caregivers. We are the caregivers of all the animals that we meet on the streets, no materr how big, how small.
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