You guys might be interested in these signs asking you to please not feed the geese! This was in a state park.
Showing posts with label feeding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feeding. Show all posts
Monday, May 26, 2008
Do Not Feed
Monday, May 12, 2008
ST (12-5-08)
Here's a letter by someone who wrote in about the Class 95 programme the other day. I noticed that the letter says that they mentioned the cats should be sent to Peru to be eaten - if that is the case, then that line was recycled. I remember being mentioned in another earlier programme when they said the same thing, so it's not even new and offensive - it's an old, offensive theme they keep repeating without any originality, or even any new lines.
Some of the comments under this letter are also quite sad because clearly there are still a lot of misconceptions about TNRM or even why the cats are there. Again, cats are not 'left' outside to find food - they are out there because they are community cats, either because they were abandoned or are the offspring of abandoned cats. I wonder if people ever stop to wonder - how did ALL these cats come from homes? Obviously some of them are abandoned, but many have never, ever lived in a home and have been born, will live and die on the streets.
Cats cannot 'find their own food' - unless of course that means digging in the trash and helping themselves to food in peoples' homes, which again would trigger more complaints which would mean the cats die. Where are they supposed to find this 'food'? Yes cats in the wild, do hunt - but obviously we are in a highly urban area - where are they supposed to find so many rodents for example to eat to survive?
Cats in Singapore, like the people, are very much the result of urban backgrounds. Let me put it this way - if you transplant a Singaporean into a farming community and told them to 'find their own food' and use their 'survival instincts', who wants to bet there's a good chance the Singaporean is going to starve? Sure, people can farm - but let's face it, most Singaporeans, including myself, would have a difficult time growing edible food to eat. And let's not even talk about for example, hunting meat, if you were so inclined.
We evolve to suit our environments - and the cats do too. Cats are naturally scavengers - and they will scavenge wherever there is food. Feeding them responsible, and sterilising, actually means they are LESS likely to make a mess. The problem is not the cats - but the people who leave food and don't clean up. The last time I checked, cats still don't have opposable thumbs with which they can pick up and throw away the leftovers - people, however do.
Some of the comments under this letter are also quite sad because clearly there are still a lot of misconceptions about TNRM or even why the cats are there. Again, cats are not 'left' outside to find food - they are out there because they are community cats, either because they were abandoned or are the offspring of abandoned cats. I wonder if people ever stop to wonder - how did ALL these cats come from homes? Obviously some of them are abandoned, but many have never, ever lived in a home and have been born, will live and die on the streets.
Cats cannot 'find their own food' - unless of course that means digging in the trash and helping themselves to food in peoples' homes, which again would trigger more complaints which would mean the cats die. Where are they supposed to find this 'food'? Yes cats in the wild, do hunt - but obviously we are in a highly urban area - where are they supposed to find so many rodents for example to eat to survive?
Cats in Singapore, like the people, are very much the result of urban backgrounds. Let me put it this way - if you transplant a Singaporean into a farming community and told them to 'find their own food' and use their 'survival instincts', who wants to bet there's a good chance the Singaporean is going to starve? Sure, people can farm - but let's face it, most Singaporeans, including myself, would have a difficult time growing edible food to eat. And let's not even talk about for example, hunting meat, if you were so inclined.
We evolve to suit our environments - and the cats do too. Cats are naturally scavengers - and they will scavenge wherever there is food. Feeding them responsible, and sterilising, actually means they are LESS likely to make a mess. The problem is not the cats - but the people who leave food and don't clean up. The last time I checked, cats still don't have opposable thumbs with which they can pick up and throw away the leftovers - people, however do.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Class 95 Morning Express
Did anyone listen to Class 95 this morning? Apparently there was a show about cat feeding and the two DJs mentioned that feeders should be fined? I didn't listen to the show and wondered if anyone had heard it and what happened exactly so we can verify what happened exactly.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Why do people feed?
I was out just now and met someone who asked me what I did. I explained that I used to be with CWS and what it was CWS set out to achieve. He also got a little history on TNRM :)
This man not unexpectedly, told me that there were two feeders near his home. He said that they left a trail of food after 10 pm and asked if feeding was illegal. It seems they don't pick up afterward.
The interesting thing is that this man asked why people feed? I told him at the time that some people feed because they're compassionate, some may feed because they're lonely and enjoy the cats' companionship. He seemed satisfied with my abbreviated answer, but as I went home, I thought more about it and realised that there are so many more reasons why people do feed - probably every one has a different reason. Some people feed for merit, some because they came across some cats one day and felt sorry for them. Some people have started and can't stop now because the cats depend on them.
I think feeding hungry cats just hits a nerve somewhere deep down and makes most people want to alleviate the hunger - of course some critics will say that there are hungry people out there too, but you don't often see them wandering the streets. Here's the thing - I bet if most feeders saw a hungry person on the street, they would help feed the person too if they could.
On the other hand, feeding on its own, just to alleviate hunger doesn't solve the wider and bigger problem - that of reproduction. It doesn't solve the problem of complaints - and that's where TNRM has to come in. The minute the cats have better nutrition, the more likely they are to breed more often and have more kittens - and that leads to complaints. Feeding is a huge and really important component of TNRM - but it cannot be the only component or the cats are more likely to be in danger than ever before. That's something all the food in the world is not going to help with.
This man not unexpectedly, told me that there were two feeders near his home. He said that they left a trail of food after 10 pm and asked if feeding was illegal. It seems they don't pick up afterward.
The interesting thing is that this man asked why people feed? I told him at the time that some people feed because they're compassionate, some may feed because they're lonely and enjoy the cats' companionship. He seemed satisfied with my abbreviated answer, but as I went home, I thought more about it and realised that there are so many more reasons why people do feed - probably every one has a different reason. Some people feed for merit, some because they came across some cats one day and felt sorry for them. Some people have started and can't stop now because the cats depend on them.
I think feeding hungry cats just hits a nerve somewhere deep down and makes most people want to alleviate the hunger - of course some critics will say that there are hungry people out there too, but you don't often see them wandering the streets. Here's the thing - I bet if most feeders saw a hungry person on the street, they would help feed the person too if they could.
On the other hand, feeding on its own, just to alleviate hunger doesn't solve the wider and bigger problem - that of reproduction. It doesn't solve the problem of complaints - and that's where TNRM has to come in. The minute the cats have better nutrition, the more likely they are to breed more often and have more kittens - and that leads to complaints. Feeding is a huge and really important component of TNRM - but it cannot be the only component or the cats are more likely to be in danger than ever before. That's something all the food in the world is not going to help with.
Friday, January 25, 2008
I only take care of feeding
I was just copied on an email which a woman sent to CWS and a whole list of people. It seems that she feeds the cats in an area (where from what I can tell she doesn't live in). She said one of the neighbours had come out and scolded her. She said she had dropped a flyer which she printed from CWS' website to show that feeding was not illegal. She wanted CWS to help her out. One of the caregivers wrote back to say that as long as she was cleaning up, there was no issue.
However as I read the email I realised that she mentioned that there were several cats including kittens. I wrote to ask her if she was sterilising the cats. She said that she was not and that she wanted someone from CWS to do it as she was scared to see the cats trapped and sterilised and she wanted to take care of the 'feeding'. There is no one else in the area except her as far as I know.
I wrote back to say that if she continues to feed without sterilising the cats, the population will grow. This will lead to more cats and hence more complaints - and it is likely that neighbours will start trapping the cats when the population grows. I asked her to please consider sterilising.
Imagine this - someone comes into your estate. You don't know anything about cats but you do know that since she arrived there are far more cats than there used to be including kittens. It's not a surprise that they might get annoyed.
She just wrote back to say that she wanted everyone to pretend that she had never written at all.
It still surprises me that some people feed without thinking of the consequences. Yes I know some people are poor - but there are resources to help those people, including CWS having programmes to help those in financial need. If they keep feeding without sterilising though, the population will grow, especially if the cats are being fed well. This means more cats are likely to be born - and to survive into adulthood. And this will mean more complaints - which means at the end of the day MORE cats are likely to get trapped and killed.
However as I read the email I realised that she mentioned that there were several cats including kittens. I wrote to ask her if she was sterilising the cats. She said that she was not and that she wanted someone from CWS to do it as she was scared to see the cats trapped and sterilised and she wanted to take care of the 'feeding'. There is no one else in the area except her as far as I know.
I wrote back to say that if she continues to feed without sterilising the cats, the population will grow. This will lead to more cats and hence more complaints - and it is likely that neighbours will start trapping the cats when the population grows. I asked her to please consider sterilising.
Imagine this - someone comes into your estate. You don't know anything about cats but you do know that since she arrived there are far more cats than there used to be including kittens. It's not a surprise that they might get annoyed.
She just wrote back to say that she wanted everyone to pretend that she had never written at all.
It still surprises me that some people feed without thinking of the consequences. Yes I know some people are poor - but there are resources to help those people, including CWS having programmes to help those in financial need. If they keep feeding without sterilising though, the population will grow, especially if the cats are being fed well. This means more cats are likely to be born - and to survive into adulthood. And this will mean more complaints - which means at the end of the day MORE cats are likely to get trapped and killed.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Programme
I just watched the programme and must say I was pretty surprised they managed to stretch what they had for half an hour. I got the impression that the programme was more about the students and training them to be journalists rather than about the topic because there really wasn't much about feeding cats or looking into the issues at hand. It's certainly good that Channel News Asia is trying to train aspiring journalists and that the students are so enthused, but I think the topic was really sort of beside the point. What I got from this episode was more about what the students learnt (waiting for people can be long and boring, not everyone wants to be interviewed, the hours are long, etc) than about feeding - and I think this is what the layperson would have drawn from it too. Perhaps they were on a rushed deadline because I only got an email from them on 31st December and more work would have made it a better piece.
It was a shame that a more balanced viewpoint was not put across though Selina from the SPCA did speak well about TNRM. It would have been better to perhaps try and find caregivers and to interview them rather than to lie in wait for them. That would I think have prepared the people who were to be interviewed and would have meant that someone who was willing to go on camera might be found. Passers by also looked pretty apprehensive when a camera was shoved into their face - and caregivers who are often made to feel guilty or even criminal about their behaviour are probably even LESS likely to want to be interviewed on television and is I think understandable. It would also give a better idea of whom caregivers are - they certainly aren't all (or even mostly) women having marital problems (though I know that was given as just an example) but come from a wide range of occupations, ages, races and gender and people all feed for many different reasons. Ask ten different people and I would not be surprised if you might get ten different answers.
I hope the colony there doesn't get into trouble after this piece.
It was a shame that a more balanced viewpoint was not put across though Selina from the SPCA did speak well about TNRM. It would have been better to perhaps try and find caregivers and to interview them rather than to lie in wait for them. That would I think have prepared the people who were to be interviewed and would have meant that someone who was willing to go on camera might be found. Passers by also looked pretty apprehensive when a camera was shoved into their face - and caregivers who are often made to feel guilty or even criminal about their behaviour are probably even LESS likely to want to be interviewed on television and is I think understandable. It would also give a better idea of whom caregivers are - they certainly aren't all (or even mostly) women having marital problems (though I know that was given as just an example) but come from a wide range of occupations, ages, races and gender and people all feed for many different reasons. Ask ten different people and I would not be surprised if you might get ten different answers.
I hope the colony there doesn't get into trouble after this piece.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Programme on cat feeding
Thanks to several people including Aminah and E_Cat for telling me about this programme airing tonight on Channel News Asia at 8:30 pm, called I-Journalist. Apparently the programme is about people feeding cats. The show will also be repeated tomorrow morning at 10:30 am.
One of the journalists contacted me but unfortunately only did so after I had left CWS, and I explained that I could not speak as a representative, and that it was best to contact the Society directly. I did say however that if they needed members of the public to speak in some context, I'd be happy to. I understand the journalist did contact a few animal welfare groups so hopefully we'll see some of that during the programme!
One of the journalists contacted me but unfortunately only did so after I had left CWS, and I explained that I could not speak as a representative, and that it was best to contact the Society directly. I did say however that if they needed members of the public to speak in some context, I'd be happy to. I understand the journalist did contact a few animal welfare groups so hopefully we'll see some of that during the programme!
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