In a written Parliamentary reply on Monday, February 18, Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said that the instances of cat-related nuisances had increased last year, with 4,500 cased reported.
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) began to keep track of these instances in 2016.
Wong said that in 2016, reports about stray cats numbered 2,300, and last year, the figure had increased to 3,600.
Louis Ng Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament, asked about the number of nuisance cases related to cats that were reported to HDB since 2008. He also asked if the number of cases had lessened in the Chong Pang constituency.
Wong answered the Nee Soon GRC MP, saying that each individual town council keeps track of these reports in HDB estates, but as a whole, AVA tracks the number of cases and reports throughout the country, starting from 2016.
He also said that the number of incidents in Chong Pang constituency had stayed “relatively constant.”
Ng works with the animal welfare group ACRES (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society), as its director.
Member of Parliament Lee Bah Wah, who is also from Nee Soon GRC, made a speech in Parliament a week ago concerning the management of animals in HDB estates.
She specified instances wherein residents had come to her with complaints about rats, which she said had proliferated because of the leftover food that community cat feeders had not taken responsibility for.
For her speech, Lee was criticised by the Cat Welfare Society (CWS), another animal welfare organization.
The Member of Parliament later clarified that she was not against cats and that her remarks had been misunderstood since she was only pointing out that some cat feeders had behaved irresponsibly.
K Shanmugam sprang to Ms Lee’s defence on social media, saying that she was merely “doing her duty as a responsible MP,” and that the concerns of the residents were legitimate.
https://theindependent.sg.sg/shanmugam-defends-lee-bee-wah-on-cats-issue-saying-she-was-doing-her-civic-duty-as-an-mp/