Monday, April 21, 2008

Umbrella Part II

I received a followup email from the caregiver who used umbrellas to drive off the dogs in their area. He said there was a pack of 5 dogs, and they had killed two cats and injured more. What they did was just to go down and wield the umbrellas and wave them at the dogs, while making noise to drive them away. When he and his fellow caregivers did this, the dogs ran across the road and haven't come back since.

I would imagine the watergun/super soaker will also be quite effective - after all Scarecrows also work on cats, and I would imagine a concentrated blast of water will prove quite useful.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The dogs r hungry!Do u know e feelin of hunger,and u have nothin to eat?Unlike humans ,who can go buy their own fd,wat do u think e dogs can feed on?It is so sad to be hungry!!And maybe dat's why they attack e cats.They got no choice.Instead of scarin them and bringin more misery to em,once they r across e road,away fr e cats,put food in a cage,trap them,take them for sterilisation,and release them back where u trap them.
Why r there so many ppl thinkin of just chasin them away?They r still hungry,they just wan some food.If cats r not fed by caregivers,they will attack e birds,they're just hungry.Same for e dogs,unlike humans,who kill in mass numbers everyday.Breeding animals just to kill them,and ppl who can't finish their food just throw them away.

Dawn said...

apple - I am glad you feel sorry for the dogs, and I do too, but here's the conundrum. Some people are worried about their cats that have been attacked by the dogs.

I don't believe dogs attack out of hunger. Cats don't kill birds because they are hungry either - they do it out of instinct. The dogs may be attacking similarly out of instinct and perhaps a sense of territory.

In one of the cases, one of the ladies who posted in the first blog entry on this mentioned that there already is a person feeding the dogs. This may actually be the reason the dogs are coming in to the territory.

Here's the thing, people have been suggesting calling in AVA. If those dogs are removed by the AVA they will be killed. I am hoping this may be an alternative suggestion that will result in the cats being safer and the dogs not being rounded up. I seriously doubt that the cat caregivers will want the dogs back in the area if their cats have been hurt.

Dawn said...

PS this is not to say that I don't think the dogs should be sterilised. If they can be sterilised (ie there is someone there prepared to do it) of course that would be ideal - but it still remains that the cat caregivers in the area may not want the dogs back.

Anonymous said...

From my past experience in my neighbourhood with wild stray dogs mauling cats to death -- the wild dogs don't eat the cats, they just mauled cats to death.

I believe in concrete jungle or urban jungle Singapore - the wild stray dogs don't eat cats, but they kill cats as it in their animal instinct to act as predator - whereby in the wild (like forests) wild dogs - wolves etc. hunts wild cats for food.

I agree with Dawn that the dogs acting out from animal instinct to kill cats, not eat cats.

Anonymous said...

ok,e best solution is for e gov to round em up,sterilise em,put em back,if they still revert to their old ways,then there's nothin much else to help em.At least there will not be more stray dogs....i understand e pain e cat caregivers feel.I hate it when my cats killed a lizard,i feel so sad for e lizard.And another better solution is ban e sale of dogs/pedigree cats.Let ppl adopt one fr e SPCA if they really wan a pet.Remove e ban on keepin big dogs(provided they r properly trained)and cats in HDB flats.

Anonymous said...

Just like CWS runs ad campaigns and encourages people to sterilize their cats, ASD needs to do the same. In particular they need to target those farms, factories or temples etc that allow their dogs to run all over the place, because I think thats where the majority of stray dogs come from..the non residential areas.

Dawn said...

I think one of the problems they face is not just the sterilisation but the licensing. As everyone knows, licensing just got even more stringent - and that's making things more difficult. Each dog has to have a license that links it to an address - whether farm, factory, home, etc, and I believe they find it difficult to find people who are willing to use their addresses. Even if there are people, they are limited to 3 dogs.

Anonymous said...

Only selected breeds of dogs are allowed in hdb flats, where the majority of Singaporeans live.
Local dogs do not fall under this category and therefore legally not allowed in a hdb home - just like cats.
As many of the "stray" dogs are local dogs - they have to go to landed property !!!
Some people in landed properties prefer pedigree dogs than local dogs - so it is difficult to find homes for our Singapore dogs.

Each address is allowed 3 dogs as Dawn said, so there are limited homes.
I agree that import of dogs shd be stopped or made very expensive to the potential buyers.