About Us
How We Started
In July 1999, a newspaper in Singapore published a report about 5 kittens being burned alive in a box. Outraged by this and other senseless acts of cruelty towards innocent animals occurring in Singapore everyday, a few friends got together and decided to help other harmless stray cats and kittens that live amongst us.
This was how the Cat Welfare Society began. We felt that having a Society would give us a more effective and stronger voice for the cats who have the right to be represented accurately and humanely, and the right to be free of pain, fear and suffering.
The Cat Welfare Society was officially approved and registered on 23 October 1999. It was registered as a charity in June 2004.
Our Mission
"Saving lives through sterilisation"
We realise that the only way to help alleviate suffering and to stop so many cats being killed is to go to the root cause of the problem -- which is that of too many cats being born. In order to do this, we believe firmly in the need to focus on sterilisation.
To put it simply, the fewer cats born, the fewer cats suffer and die.
When Cat Welfare Society first came into operation, records showed that 13,000 community cats were put down every year. This equated to 35 cats killed every single day. We found that this could not be allowed to go on and joined the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in its effort to incentivise and encourage people to sterilise community cats.
We were also active in coordinating the sterilisation efforts of volunteers under the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA)'s sterilisation programme from 1998 to 2004, implemented after its study confirmed the benefits of sterilisation as an effective means of community cat population control.
Sterilisation as a recognised practice continues to this day. As a result, the number of cats being put down has fallen to an average of 10,000 cats per year in the last decade. In 2009, that number was at an all-time low of 8000.
This is a clear indication of the effectiveness of current strategies in stabilising and reducing the stray population. This is especially observable when volunteers, town councils and management committees work together to uphold the integrity of the sterilisation programme in their estates. Through this continued collaboration will we be able to bring down the community cat population even further and send fewer cats to be culled.
"Saving lives through enriching more minds"
Moving forward, we aim to build on our strength in numbers to cultivate a robust community outreach movement to reach more people with our message of responsibility and tolerance. Many caregivers and volunteers are already part of this grassroots movement to educate their neighbours and fellow residents as well as to help their community resolve issues related to community and pet cats.
We believe that it takes a community to resolve a community issue and only by making a human connection can we create a culture of peer pressure and encouragement that can effectively change mindsets.
Help us help more caring people, their communities and their community cats
To carry out our work and to accomplish our goals, we need the support and cooperation of management authorities and the community, as well as sufficient funds. We have a growing network of caregivers, volunteers and supporters but that is not nearly enough to ensure the safety and well-being of all community cats around the island.
The Society does not receive any funding from government or other organisations. We depend totally on membership subscriptions, donations and fund-raising activities for our projects. Our work is carried out almost entirely by volunteers so all the funds received will go towards making life better for community cats.
Every person should be encouraged to treat animals with kindness and respect. We hope that one day, with your help, there will no longer be unwanted cats on the streets, vulnerable to neglect and abuse. Every cat should have a loving home or safe shelter where it can live without suffering and fear.
What we do makes a difference. An average of 10,000 cats are culled every year in the last ten years. Be the change in the next 10.
