Shobana Kesava, Straits Times 9 Jun 08;
WHEN Mr Louis Ng set up a welfare group here to improve the lot of wild animals, he was labelled a fanatic.
Some thought he had a screw loose.
Seven years later, he is no longer a voice in the wilderness.
Acres, short for Animal Concerns Research & Education Society, has 12,000 volunteers and donors, government funding and - this is crucial - status as an institution of public character, which allows donations to it to be tax-exempt.
Mr Ng, 29, said: 'I was always told: 'You're a small fry' and 'You can't change big organisations'.'
He has not only made the authorities sit up and take notice, he now works with them to nab those in the illegal wildlife trade.
Acres is also building a shelter in Sungei Tengah big enough to house and give medical treatment to at least 400 animals; it even works with other animal welfare groups to give out grants to students for their own animal-protection projects.
His secret? Perseverance.
A baby chimpanzee named Rhamba started it all for him in 2000. Then a 21-year-old volunteer photographer for the zoo, he said he saw a keeper punch Rhamba in the face to discipline the animal.
He said: 'She ran to me and hugged me. I knew then that I had to speak on her behalf.'
He tipped off The Straits Times, which reported the incident and that started a groundswell of support from animal lovers who successfully campaigned for Rhamba to be returned to her family.
The zoo denied that this was a problem, but following the media publicity, it stopped isolating baby chimps from their families.
Adding that zookeepers have come a long way since then, Mr Ng still considers the episode 'the best thing that happened in my life'.
Inspired to do more for animals, he and eight friends started what would become Singapore's first wildlife protection agency, scraping together less than $1,000 in combined savings.
The National University of Singapore-trained biologist was then doing his masters in primate conservation part-time with the Oxford Brookes University in Britain, but through sheer will and support from friends, he got Acres up and running on a shoestring in 2001.
He and his team began by fanning out to give talks in schools.
Public education is ongoing. In the past seven years, Mr Ng estimated, Acres has reached out to over 200,000 people about animal abuse and how animals can be better protected.
In between day jobs, the Acres team started gathering information on trade in illegal wildlife here and sharing that information with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), which then launches investigations to break the chain of supply of and demand for illegal wildlife.
AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong now refers to Acres as one among its 'extra pairs of eyes and ears'.
The money began rolling in, starting with an $8,000 grant from the Lee Foundation. To date, the largest donation has been from the Government - a $120,000 cheque from the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre.
No corners are cut on the animals.
A vervet monkey confiscated from a factory where it had been caged for six years was flown back to an African reserve, for example.
Acres' six full-time employees, however, survive on minimal wages and generous family support: Mr Ng draws only $1,400 a month. The other five employees scrape by on as little as $500 each.
His 30-year-old zoologist wife Amy Corrigan, whom he met while researching gibbons in the Wildlife Friends of Thailand Rescue Centre, is now Acres' director of research and education.
She said: 'We really need people who are completely committed because we want as much of our funds as possible to go to the animals.'
The public has delivered with tip-offs. Calls to Acres' hotline have resulted in about 200 animals being rescued in the last four years and resettled in the zoo, Jurong BirdPark and Sentosa's Underwater World.
About 2,000 dedicated volunteers also pitch in to do undercover work. They visit traditional Chinese medicine shops and pet shops armed with hidden cameras and leading questions, and keep their eyes peeled for illegal products such as bears' bile and tigers' penises or endangered animals such as pig-nosed turtles.
Once gathered, the evidence is passed to the AVA, which swoops in to confiscate the products and animals and nab the offenders.
'One time in 2005, a tip-off led us to a man who kept 11 animals of seven different species in his bedroom that he got from the illegal wildlife trade,' recalled Mr Ng.
Mr Ng also takes pride in Acres' successful lobbying to increase the penalty for wildlife smuggling tenfold - from $5,000 per animal to $50,000.
To do this, it worked with Dr Geh Min, the immediate past president of the Nature Society of Singapore and then Nominated Member of Parliament.
Dr Geh said she was struck by Mr Ng's thoroughness and commitment: 'We met several times and he'd done all his homework. It was really because of his recommendations and determination that we got the amendment to the Bill pushed through in 2006.'
Acres' expertise in the field has also been acknowledged by the American embassy. US officials who had negotiated a Free Trade Agreement with Singapore asked Acres for its input on whether Singapore was staying true to the section of the pact on illegal animal trade.
Mr Ng took that as a cue to raise the need for the improvement of legislation on the trade and possession of endangered species, and a wildlife rescue centre.
The group's efforts have so impressed Law Minister K. Shanmugam that he agreed - on short notice - to speak at Acres' seventh anniversary celebrations last month.
Referring to Mr Ng, the minister said to the dinner guests: 'This young man has a lot of spunk and we should, in Singapore society, support organisations like this and a young man like this.'
The dinner raised $80,000 and the menu was - naturally - vegetarian.
