Today (19-5-09)

A nice letter from Today Online which makes the same good point - why are traps loaned out for free? If AVA is a free 'pest' controller, then it really should control all 'pests' - including cockroaches, flies, ants, etc.

Endangered Species Day

May 15th was Endangered Species Day. In Singapore, on Saturday, there was the Animal Welfare Symposium which I heard went very well! There were a number of really interesting projects up for the Animal Protectors' Grant and it's very heartening to see so many people come up with great animal welfare ideas!

Hoarding

Too often, people think hoarders are well meaning. If only, the thinking goes, we 'help them out', they'll be able to manage. They'll stop taking in cats. They'll sterilise and manage the ones they can cope with.

The fact of the matter is, most hoarders relapse. According to Tuft's University, the rate of relapse is almost 100%. Most hoarders don't see an issue with what they are doing, thinking that they are 'rescuing' or 'saving' the cats. The sad fact of the matter is that all the good intentions in the world from the people wanting to help is not going to be enough to put an end to the animals' suffering. Most hoarders will just go out and get more cats. Of the few hoarders I met, none of them could stop - they were of the mindset that no one else cared for the cats as they did, nor could save them as they would. Never mind, the dead cats that would seem to suggest otherwise.

Here's a case that was just uncovered in the US in the last few days to show what one of these hoarders homes looks like. If you think the urine and feces drenched home is an exaggeration, Jolanda and I went into a house which had feces smeared all over the walls. It was horrifying.

Twittering goes to the cats!

Apparently this cat has close to 500000 fans :)

Crazy cat lady game

Crazy cat lady game, originally uploaded by dawnkua.

Here's a game I recently played - and no, I didn't win.

Cat Bird

cat Bird, originally uploaded by dawnkua.

I thought you might find this bird interesting - it's called a cat bird, so called because one of the sounds it makes is a mew :)

AWARE and civil society

I was so glad to read about the AWARE EOGM over the weekend (and was getting SMS updates from friends). It wasn't about Christians versus homosexuals as some people were trying to make it out to be.

It was really about many people taking a stand against what they felt was unfair - and that was the takeover of AWARE.

On a bigger scale, I think this bodes very well for civil society in Singapore. People have said Singaporeans are apathetic - but over the weekend, many people stood up to be counted and to have a voice. I am immensely happy to see that.

There was a good article about this and the ramifications of the AWARE saga in Today.