CHANGE IN CIRCUMSTANCES
As for the reasons why pet owners surrender their pets, there are many but it usually comes down to a change in circumstances, said Ms Sankar from SPCA.
“It could range from the loss of a family member who may have been the main caregiver for the pet, to a change in the family dynamics, such as having to care for their senior parents, having children with allergies or a change in financial circumstances, causing a pet guardian to no longer be able to afford to provide and care for their pet,” she continued.
“In some other cases, it could be a lack of investment in training during their pet’s formative years that has led to a change in their pet’s behaviour or a change in housing situations.”
Over the years, pet expenses have “gone up quite a bit” across the board, said Mr Yeo.
For example, vet expenses have become more expensive, and the price of pet food has also gone up, according to the animal welfare groups CNA spoke to.
Cat Welfare Society (CWS) president Thenuga Vijakumar said that it has been coming across more abandoned pets since the end of 2022 – something she attributes to inflation and rising costs.
“So instead of caring for them for life, some irresponsible owners are dumping them and shifting the burden of care to caregivers (who are also affected by inflation),” she added.
While more cats were adopted through CWS during the COVID-19 period, Ms Vijakumar said this did not correlate to an uptick in abandonment numbers, because the adoption process involves strict screenings such as whether an adopter can financially afford it in the long run.
During this period, cats were abandoned primarily due to more people not being able to afford to sterilise them. This then led to overpopulation in homes, she added.
“I would hazard that those who are abandoning cats likely obtained their animals from stores or backyard breeders or informal, unregulated channels.
“They were more likely to make a split-second decision on the basis of the cat being cute rather than with an understanding of the 20 years of commitment they carry.”
Ms Wati, a consultant who has been rescuing cats in the community for more than a decade, concurred that the problem was a lack of sterilisation. She said that in recent months, she has become more of a mediator between cat owners – mostly hoarders – and the authorities in order to “get to the root cause of the problem”.
Just last year, someone abandoned two ragdoll cats in a box at the void deck of her Teck Whye block.