SPCA to roll out stray cat sterilisation programme

SYAFFANA SAZALI Today Online 26 May 15;

SINGAPORE — In a bid to further reduce the stray cat population in Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) will from next Monday (June 1) offer free sterilisation and microchipping of stray cats living in HDB estates.

The programme will replace the SPCA’s existing sterilisation voucher scheme, which offers free sterilisation vouchers to the public and other animal welfare groups

Under the Stray Cat Sterilisation Programme, first formally launched in 2011 by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), caregivers will have to register with the SPCA clinic to book an appointment for sterilisation and microchipping, or do so at a participating veterinary clinic, said the SPCA in a press release today. The costs will be funded by the SPCA and AVA equally.

Cats living outside of HDB neighbourhoods, such as those in industrial and private housing estates, or farms and outer fringe areas, can be sterilised for S$25 each.

On replacing the current voucher scheme, which started in 1991, Ms Corinne Fong, Executive Director of the SPCA, told TODAY that the organisation decided to streamline its sterilisation operations, instead of running two programmes. The SPCA has distributed more than 33,000 free sterilisation vouchers to the public and other animal welfare groups under the existing scheme, totalling S$1.2 million borne by the SPCA.

Ms Fong said the new programme would be more efficient because the SPCA would have direct communication with stray feeders, while the current scheme does not provide the SPCA with the feeders’ identity or information such as their contact numbers.

“The SPCA believes inworking closely with the relevant caregivers/feeders of the community cats, helping the caregivers/feeders to be more accountable and take greater ownership of the respective cats in their care,” she said. “By ‘tagging’ each community cat sterilised under the (new programme) to its respective caregiver/feeder, that cat can be better traced to the latter as and when there are issues to do with it, for example, when it has been reported in need of seeking treatment for its injury, we can alert the caregiver. In many cases, when cats are not microchipped and thus not tagged to a caregiver/feeder, we aren’t able to locate the person.”

The SPCA also said it would train its volunteers and mediators to work with community feeders to encourage sterilisation, responsible feeding and public education.

The organisation will continue to assist stray dog feeders with controlling and managing the stray dog numbers. Individual feeders and rescuers can arrange to sterilise and microchip the dogs at the SPCA clinic at a subsidised rate of S$25 each, said the SPCA.

SPCA joining scheme to sterilise stray cats
Audrey Tan The Straits Times AsiaOne 28 May 15;

A national sterilisation programme to reduce the stray cat population in Singapore will have a new partner from next week - the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), it said yesterday.

With SPCA coming on board from Monday, caregivers of stray cats in HDB estates will have anotheroption if they choose to get their animal charges sterilised.

The sterilisation initiative was rolled out nationwide by the Cat Welfare Society and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) in May last year.

Under it, volunteers can take strays from HDB estates to selected veterinary clinics to get them sterilised and micro-chipped for free. The cost is borne equally between AVA and either the SPCA or Cat Welfare Society.

It typically costs between $30 and $60 to neuter a cat, and another $20 to microchip it.

The SPCA said the programme will make caregivers more accountable for the animals in their care, since each cat sterilised under the scheme will be given a microchip number tagged to its caregiver.

This will make it easier for SPCA to look for the caregiver under certain situations, such as if the cat has been injured and requires treatment, said SPCA executive director Corinne Fong.

She added that the programme will offer the animal welfare group the opportunity to work more closely with community cat feeders in their efforts to trap, neuter and release the animals.

Cat Welfare Society vice-president Veron Lau said the group sterilised 4,749 cats last year, although less than 20 per cent of the sterilisations were undertaken as part of the programme.

She said: "The number of stray cats in HDB estates has more or less stabilised."

SPCA to implement stray cat sterilisation programme on June 1
AsiaOne 26 May 15;

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) announced on Tuesday that it will implement the Stray Cat Sterilisation Programme on June 1.

The programme, a new collaboration between SPCA and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), aims to further reduce the number of stray cats in Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates.

It was first launched by the AVA and the Cat Welfare Society last year.

Under the stray cat sterilisation programme, a community cat can be sterilised and microchipped for free at a participating veterinary clinic. Community cat caregivers will have to register with the SPCA clinic to book appointments beforehand.

The costs of sterilisation and microchipping will be funded by the AVA and SPCA equally.

SPCA added that community cats living in places such as industrial and private housing estates, or farms and outer fringe areas, can be sterilised for a nominal sum of $25 each.

The SPCA will also train its volunteers and mediators to work with community feeders in the areas of encouraging sterilisation, responsible feeding and public education.

The stray cat sterilisation programme will replace SPCA's existing sterilisation voucher scheme which came into effect in 1991.
Under the scheme, the SPCA has distributed over 33,000 free sterilisation vouchers to the public and other animal welfare groups, which amounted to a total of $1.2 million borne by the SPCA.

For more information on the stray cat sterilisation programme, visit http://www.spca.org.sg/services_sterilisation.asp