Remembering Ace

Does he look like a stray to you? Not to me either.

Ace was an unfortunate victim of pet abandonment more than 2 years ago. He turned up suddenly one day along our route. One of the many unseen, unknown ones out there. Found along places quite away from crowded housing, along routes where the owners could conveniently dumped their pets out from their cars and quickly speed away.

Sounds heartless? It is. For to subject domesticated pets to the full elements and dangers of the wild is as cruel as explicit animal abuse. For the animal is left in a highly distressed state of loss and fear, and at risk of car accidents or wrongly put down as strays. Some would die a slow, painful death of starvation, never being found. It is downright sad and cruel.

Ace is such a handsome fellow. Unfortunately, he was wary of us and 'disappeared' before we could get close enough to bring him to safety.

To prevent more cases of such senseless abandonment, of owners thinking that they could buy a pet one day, and dump them the next, let us aim for compulsory microchipping of ALL pets being sold from farms and petshops.

Compulsory microchipping was announced as one of the measures to be undertaken by AVA at their Responsible Pet Ownership roadshow in November 2005. However, it has not been implemented. You can consider writing into AVA to enquire on the status - http://www.ava.gov.sg/

Microchipping acts as a deterrent to irresponsible families who think that they can 'try out' a pet instead of fully committing to whatever might come along the way, from the very moment they bring an animal home. It is a push factor for families to consider thoroughly their decision to have a pet, and a deterrent against pet abandonment as the animal can easily be traced back to the owner.

An educated decision on sterilisation is also key in preventing unwanted pups from being born, and carelessly given away to friends and relatives who are not committed to their well-being. In most circumstances, breeding should NOT take place nor is there a need to.

Education is the only sustaining factor to raise our platform of awareness in future, not just in animal welfare but in all areas of uplifting mankind and the world we live in.