PET DISOWNED AS IT ‘DOES NOT LIKE’ OWNER
While some owners are sparing no expense to pamper their furkids, why are others neglecting, abusing or abandoning the very animals that they had brought into their homes?
Ms Lanie, 38, was given two terrapins by her sister sometime in September as her sister faced some personal difficulties in caring for them. Ms Lanie then bought another terrapin so each of her three children could have a pet of their own to take care of.
“It was not just easy to get the terrapins, they were very cheap too. They were about S$8. There wasn’t any education given by the shop,” said the financial adviser who did not want to give her full name.
Five other pet owners told CNA TODAY they had similar experiences when buying small pets from stores — quick, fuss-free with no questions asked on whether they knew how to take care of the animals they were buying.
For Ms Lanie, things were all well and good until she returned from a one-month trip recently to terrapins that had grown so fast it caught her by surprise — they had doubled in size in roughly three months.
The family had already changed the tanks twice before her trip to accommodate the growing size of the turtles, she said
“I started to research the life span of terrapins. They can live up to 50 years, which surprises me. They probably will outlive me.”
Ms Lanie said she is now looking to give up the terrapins to someone who lives in a bigger house and can provide more space for them.
Her situation highlights two key factors driving many others to give up their pets, said animal lovers and pet welfare groups: The relative ease of buying such pets and insufficient knowledge or preparation by prospective owners.
These factors apply especially in the purchase of smaller animals, whose tiny size make them extra attractive to children and cause some prospective owners to underestimate the actual commitment needed to care for such pets.
“They often forget that taking care of them when they are ill or old is part of the package,” said Ms Tan of HRSS.
“Particularly, this happens to owners who are inadequately informed at the point of purchase or adoption, pet shops usually do not prepare them beyond the purchase.”
Agreeing, Little Hammy Rescue Singapore (LHRS) said owners’ commitment is often tested when the animals fall sick, as treatment can run into thousands of dollars.
“The owners then choose to ‘dispose’ of the $20 hamster rather than pay for its treatment,” said the group’s president Xylvie Wong and team member Tan Wei Wei.
Changes in one’s life circumstances might also prompt some owners to give up their pets.
Ms Ten Hui Yu, an associate director at a financial advisory firm who has been volunteering at a cat shelter for about eight years, said there have been people asking the shelter to take in their pets because they had just welcomed a newborn.
Part-time make up artist and cat-sitter Lynn Jefrey recalled a few years ago seeing a man releasing a cat from a carrier in public, before heading to a nearby hawker centre for a meal.
“When I confronted him, he brushed it off saying that he had brought home the cat for his kids to play with for a few weeks, but his wife disliked the cat,” said the 45-year-old, who has been feeding community cats regularly and fostering old and sick cats for years.
Ms Lynn ended up bringing home the newly abandoned cat and found an adopter for it.
The animal groups and volunteers have also encountered cases where owners underwent more drastic life changes, such as financial hardship or the main pet caregiver passing away, and felt hard-pressed to rehome the pets.
But there is also no shortage of those who want to give up their pets for more frivolous reasons.
Ms Tan and Ms Wong of LHRS said the organisation has come across reasons such as children no longer liking the hamsters the parents bought for them, and because hamsters bite.
“One more reason we encountered: ‘The animal communicator told me that my hamster doesn’t like me’,” they said.
A PSS spokesperson said owners have approached the group to give up their pets because they were “giving up their ‘parrot hobby’” or they wanted to “upgrade” to larger species of parrots.
“We would like to emphasise that keeping a parrot should not be seen as a casual hobby, nor should a parrot be treated like a collectible,” the spokesperson added.
Some owners even threaten to abandon or release the animals to the wild if these animal groups do not assist in their rehoming requests.
As for cases of neglect and irresponsibility, the animal welfare groups and pet lovers told CNA TODAY that they often stem from the same root causes of abandonment.
As Ms Ten, the cat shelter volunteer, put it: “I think most of the time… they (irresponsible pet owners) fail to understand or comprehend the amount of responsibility – be it financial, personal or social – it actually takes to be a pet owner until they become one, then they aren’t able to bear that responsibility.”
She has adopted seven ill cats, including four that she cared for until they died.
