SINGAPORE: Picture that you hear your neighbour’s canine whining violently for hours on end. Or you see a puppy rabbit being kept in a locked room for days in the common room. What would you do- speak to your neighbour, or record it to the government?
In April, a man was given a 20-day prison term for neglecting 43 cats in a smooth without food and water, setting a substantial legal precedent. Under Singapore’s Animals and Birds Act, this was the first time a statement for a conviction relating to neglect was imposed.
In 2023 only, the SPCA investigated 915 scenarios involving animal welfare. These cases usually fall into two broad categories: Abuse and violence, where there is intentional infliction of anguish, suffering, or death, and neglect, characterised by a failure to provide simple needs for an animal, resulting in continuous suffering due to inadequate living conditions.
Frighteningly, more than two- quarters of the cases reported to the SPCA last month involved issues of abuse.
There are many causes why pets close up neglected. A once-loved dog that caught one’s attention turns into a doggy that no one wants to worry about because some people lose interest in their pets. Also, there are people who fail to clean their pets, resulting in more creatures than they can handle.
In other cases, psychological issues cause people to endlessly collect animals, eventually putting an end to their ability to give appropriate treatment.
It breaks my heart to see that in all of these conditions, animals are the ones who suffer the most.