The 'worst case of cat
mutilation' was discovered at Blk 550 Choa Chu Kang on
Street 52 on 21 Feb 2009.
Last Sunday, a group of us went door to door in the vicinity to see
what information we could find about the case as well as to ask the
residents to participate in a petition for more security measures
to be put in place in the area.
Most of the residents were not aware of what had happened in their
neighbourhood, although a few had seen the SPCA reward posters on
the notice boards or read the TNP article. But after being told
what happened to the cat, many were noticeably shaken and eager to
ask for something to be done.
This was not a case of a misguided hot-headed or frightened
individual protecting themselves or their territory from an errant
cat. Appalling as those cases are, many might shake their heads but
ultimately, find no real bearing on their own safety. This
crime on their doorstep is a grotesquely meticulous, pre-meditated
act with a highly lethal weapon, very much the work of a troubled
individual seeking release in the worst possible way. Enough
studies have shown the correlation of such violence against animals
to violence against humans and that message has made more than a
few residents sit up and take notice.
And this was not an isolated case in Choa Chu Kang. Equally
gruesome was the pregnant tri-colour cat found on 29 Nov 2008 at
Blk 130 Choa Chu Kang Ave 1 with her stomach slit open and guts
hanging out. That makes two cases in Choa Chu Kang where mutilation
with a knife or sharp object is evident. Over the years in that
estate, the caregiver has found and cared for countless more
injured or dead cats, bashed in, run over by bicycles, thrown from
high floors.
Statistics on animal abuse in Singapore number in the
hundreds every year – 800 on average. Most of these are
pet-related, outcomes of irresponsibility, negligence and plain old
stupidity. These perpetrators are usually ordinary people with some
vital deficiency and we know there are too many of them littering
the earth. If education, threat of fines and public humiliation
cannot get through to them, well, let’s hope there are enough
busybodies in this world to call them out on their
shortcomings.
Just as importantly, we need to take a magnifying glass to the
actual number of violent crimes committed against animals every
year and the mode of abuse. We’d like to think the individuals who
would take these actions are few but they are also gallingly hard
to apprehend. Better profiling and records can make all the
difference. Perhaps SPCA or the police are monitoring these cases
but as a lay person, the woman was not able to get much more
information than the yearly reported statistics.
Hand in hand with that, we would like to remind people to report
all abuse cases to SPCA or to the police, if only so that a
comprehensive database of abuse can be built that might force
authorities to take closer notice of this insidious underlying
threat to society. It might one day even help build a case against
a perpetrator.
As the woman was assigned the block directly next to Blk 550, she
and another volunteer encountered quite a few households who heard
distressed cat cries several nights in a row around the time the
body of the kitten was found. Their hearts sank when they heard
this. One young girl who told them about the cries was also visibly
cut up. Let’s hope she never hears those cries again in her
neighbourhood.
cat abuse at choa
chu kang :: http://animalfamily.multiply.com
