Pet ownership, stray management policies reviewed Sat, Nov 12, 2011 | AsiaOne Most animal-related problems we face today have their roots in irresponsible pet ownership and inconsiderate behaviour, said Minister of State (Manpower and National Development) Mr Tan Chuan-Jin. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore's (AVA) responsible pet owners roadshow held this morning at the Singapore Expo. "Most complaints of nuisance are due to reasons such as irresponsible owners allowing their pets to defecate in public areas without cleaning up, and some members of the public irresponsibly feeding strays," said Mr Tan. He reiterated, however, that everyone must work hand-in-hand to create a conducive shared living environment for everyone. In this regard, he shared the three main areas of focus highlighted by the inter-agency taskforce, comprising the Ministry of National Development (MND), together with AVA and the Housing and Development Board (HDB). First, in enhancing public education, Mr Tan urged all the stakeholders to work more closely together to strengthen public education efforts on responsible pet ownership and stray management. Second, he announced two pilot trials for greater pet ownership. The first is a pilot cat ownership project in Chong Pang, wherein there will be certain conditions to keeping a cat in the HDB flat, in order to minimise nuisance and ensure responsible pet ownership. These conditions include sterilisation, micro-chipping and keeping the cat indoors. Owners must register their cats in order to join the pilot trial. The other pilot is a re-homing project for stray mongrels or cross-breed dogs in HDB flats to help alleviate the stray dog issue. The third area of focus is stray animal management. The inter-agency taskforce and animal welfare groups have discussed and agreed that they should work towards no strays in the long term, as dogs and cats are responsibly owned. However, they will still have to address the current issue of stray animal populations. The minister sees 'greater scope for the authorities to work closer with the community in facilitating and ensuring the use of more humane methods of stray management', which could include re-homing for both cats and dogs, and sterilisation of stray cats.