Monday, April 9, 2012

Glue board, SPCA tel and Mobile Clinic

I gave the following feedback and suggestions to SPCA recently:

1) Glue board for rats about the size of full scape paper when unfolded are being sold at a CK Department Store in HDB estate. It is sold cheaply costing only a few dollars. As CK has many shops island wide, it is worrying that such items is still easily available in spite of the effort by SPCA.

As there has been wide publicity that a stray cat had to be put down after it got stuck in the glue board, the adverse effect is those with a cruel streak against strays may get the idea how to torture them by getting this board and place them near strays areas in HDB.

2) SPCA contact number - the current phone number is not easy to recall. Though SPCA encourages us to store it in our handphone, but the logical thing to do is to change it to one that is easy to remember. As SPCA will be relocating to a new venue in the near future, why not use this opportunity to change it to a user friendly number ? After the relocation, it is likely SPCA will do some promotion to create public awareness. Thus it will be a good time to change the contact number once and for all and publicize it widely.

3) Mobile Clinic cum Emergency Rescue Vehicle - this facility is available in developed countries. Could SPCA plan for its introduction locally ? The mobile clinic could be deployed to help sterilize strays island wide on rotational basis weekly. As SPCA future venue is pretty far flung, it is difficult for the public to access it for application of sterilization voucher or bring in strays to your vet clinic

The mobile clinic could also serve as a rescue vehicle. This will better serve injured strays needing immediate attention. Currently if my understanding is correct, any rescue injured stray has to be brought back to SPCA before it can be attended to.

Fund for this could be from multi sources like:
- SPCA lobby for fund from cash rich donors like TOTO Board
- partial funding from AVA / govt
- becomes part of SPCA annual budget

Additional vet support needed could be from volunteers by S'pore vets eg 1 day per week/month ?

Could SPCA take this bore step forward to improve animal welfare in S'pore ?

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