‘It’s fine to keep cats, but owners must be responsible’: Residents complain of roaming cats at HDB block

SINGAPORE: Pet owners should be responsible for their pets, but this has not been the case when residents of an HDB flat located in Toa Payoh complained that a male resident has been keeping cats in his three-room unit and allowing them to roam freely and defecate in the common corridor.

As reported by Shin Min Daily News, since the beginning of the year, many households on the third floor have been finding cat faeces in front of their doors, and no one would come to clean them up. 

A resident admitted: “One of the affected residents was often away from home, and the cat would poop there and no one would clean it up, so it got smellier and smellier.”

To solve this concern, neighbours occasionally help clean the corridor, and designated cleaners also visit the area after someone complains to the authorities.

Furthermore, the town council installed a repellent device outside the unit in hopes of driving away the cats, but they went to other units to do their thing, and the situation did not improve. Additionally, smaller sonic devices were also placed in one unit on each of the third and fourth floors.

With this, residents came up with their own solutions. One female resident made her own ‘pin cushion’ out of cardboard and toothpicks, and she placed them in the hallways every night until early morning to give way for people with wheelchairs. 

“It’s fine to keep cats, but I hope cat owners are responsible and can’t rely entirely on the town council to install sonic cat repellents,” a resident concluded. 

In similar news related to neighbour concerns, there was a recent report where one resident shared his frustration online after his upstairs neighbour hung a water-filled bag outside the window, causing water to drip onto the bedsheet that he had put out to dry. 

“Last time I experienced the same, and I went to their house and let them know about it. I hope your upstairs neighbours are not that kind of selfish. Good luck,” one more netizen admitted. 

Read more about the news story here.