The Cat Welfare Society (CWS) has reaffirmed the importance of keeping pet cats indoors after one was found dead on a doorstep in Marsiling on Friday (Dec 9).
In a Facebook post on Friday, that has since been shared more than 1,000 times, Muhd Nur Hakim wrote that he was woken up by his mother at about 5am after she found his cat dead on their doorstep amid a pool of blood.
The 28-year-old despatcher told The Straits Times on Saturday (Dec 10) that the cat, which was about 10 years old, regularly roamed outside the house.
He added that he suspected “nobody as all my neighbours around me look after each other”.
His neighbour had alerted his mother to the dead cat, he said.
CWS spokesman Veron Lau said that Town Councils often refer complaints about roaming cats to the society.
“We try to prevent just this type of escalation of issues that leads to abuse or culling by educating cat owners to keep their cats indoors,” said Ms Lau.
She added that CWS is “very saddened to hear of the fate of this cat” and “urged the authorities to take serious action to catch such a cruel perpetrator”.
A spokesman for the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) said that AVA is aware of the case and is looking into it.
Mr Hakim said his cat had no wounds to suggest attacks from other animals such as dogs.
“When I carried it, its mouth was full of saliva and bubbles,” he said.
The incident has got netizens talking about the importance of keeping cats indoors.
In a comment on Mr Hakim’s post, Lim Suu Swen asked the pet owner why his cat was outside his house. “Shouldn’t you be keeping it indoors?”
Another commenter, Shu Hui, added that it’s “funny how it’s always the cat killer who gets all the scolding but nobody really reprimands the owner for allowing the cat to roam”.
In response, Mr Hakim said that “though cats are house pets, and they are meant to be kept at home, they are living things. If my cat keeps scratching the front door to go out, I can’t deny it”.
He wrote on his Facebook post that he wanted to alert “people to be on a lookout for such creatures near my area that are killing cats or dogs for pleasure”.
This article was first published on December 11, 2016.
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