MY DAD came across a 1m snake in the grass area about 10 steps
away from the bus stop in Upper Thomson Road on Dec 17.
He told me to call the relevant authorities before the snake
slithered to the bus stop, or to the nearby terrace house.
When I contacted the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA),
the operator transferred me to the unit which she claimed could
help in this matter. However, the woman who picked up the call did
not even give me three minutes to speak. When she heard 'snake',
she said 'Call the police please'.
Meanwhile, a commuter at the bus stop called the police.
I called AVA again and asked the operator if it is indeed the
police's job to be catching snakes. She immediately said she will
transfer me to corporate affairs but the call was transferred to a
mail box instead.
In the next 15 minutes, neither the police nor AVA staff turned
up. My dad and I looked on helplessly as the snake slithered back
to the bushes and disappeared.
Angela Tang (Ms)
The phone operators or front desk is not well train in handling
this urgent issues.
The relevant authorities should look into all the protocols, the
set of procedures to follow, instead of transferring one call to
another.
It should how poorly handle by them.
