CWS shared its thoughts on the sustainability of rescue work and caregiving.
CWS has operated since 1999 without a shelter. Instead, our immediate beneficiaries are community cat caregivers, rescuers, fosterers and financially disadvantaged cat owners. Through our work, we have intimate knowledge of the unseen burden of rescue and caregiving.
We administer the largest sterilisation programme for cats in Singapore to the tune of over 5000 cats a year to reduce the number of cats humanely. By doing this, we aim to increase the amount of resources available to the cats that are already born.
In our view, the impact of this can only be truly enjoyed when sterilisation rates reach a high enough level that the number of cats being rescued and adopted is greater than the number of cats being born. Only then can a level of sustainability be achieved.
Look at the example of our current Community Cat Sterilisation Programme – the evolution of the Stray Cat Sterilisation Programme from a decade ago. It was the more humane option to mass culling that was used to control cat populations, and it tackled population expansion from breeding. But it only covered the “ground”.
What was an “Upstairs Problem”, i.e. the lack of sterilisation in homes resulting in roaming and abandonment, quickly becamse the “Downstairs Problem” transferring a hefty burden of care, for the 20 years of a cat’s life, to already worn down caregivers. The new cats destabilise the ecosystem of already managed community cats by skewing resources toward them for trapping, sterilisation, fostering and rehoming. This burden is unfairly borne by community cat caregivers, rescuers, fosterers and rehomers.
Even today, the issue continues as education about sterilisation and responsible cat ownreship can only accomplish so much – and this is where much of our frustration arises in the lost opportunity to truly effect change through the Cat Management Framework.
The Framework introduced a cost of compliance – licensing for pet cats. But entirely ignores the most efficient measure for sustainability – mandatory sterilisation of pet cats.
CWS’ Pet Cat Sterilisation Programme costs $0 to the cat owner for transport, sterilisation and microchipping. So effectively, the cost of compliance is taking an online course and filling up a form online.
The only “carrot” for sterilisation is that the licensing fee is $0, compared to $35/year for unsterilised cats.
CWS’ view is that this is not a useful gesture in an of itself. The fact is, unless sterilisation becomes pervasive enough to re-balance the number of cats being born, i.e. which need resources, there will never be a sustainability for our cat community. We repeat our call to introduce the mandatory sterilisation of pets through the Cat Management Framework to effect true change.
