SINGAPORE: Imagine that you hear your neighbour’s dog whining loudly for hours on end. Or you see a pet cat caged up for days in the common corridor. What would you do – speak to your neighbour, or report it to the authorities?
A significant legal precedent was set in April when a man received a 20-day jail sentence for neglecting 43 cats in a flat devoid of food and water. This was the first time a jail sentence was imposed for a conviction related to neglect, under Singapore’s Animals and Birds Act.
In 2023 alone, the SPCA investigated 915 cases involving animal welfare. These cases generally fall into two broad categories: Abuse and cruelty, where there is intentional infliction of pain, suffering, or death; and neglect, characterised by a failure to provide basic needs for an animal, resulting in prolonged suffering due to inadequate living conditions.
Alarmingly, more than two-thirds of the cases reported to the SPCA last year involved issues of neglect.
There are many reasons why animals end up neglected. Some people lose interest in their pets; a once-beloved puppy that captivated everyone’s attention becomes a dog that no one wants to care for. Additionally, there are individuals who fail to sterilise their pets, resulting in more animals than they can manage.
In other cases, psychological issues lead people to compulsively hoard pets, eventually overwhelming their ability to provide proper care.
It is heartbreaking that in all these situations, the animals are the ones who suffer the most.
