For the benefit of new readers, Riley is a little street kitten whom I first started befriending in mid-September this year. All in, it took about 2 months of building the friendship and trust before we finally managed to catch her for neutering. Little did we know that she is just small-sized and is already “more than 5 months old” (hence, already sexually mature). There were also two unneutered tomcats going after Samantha (the Calico female who had just delivered at the end of November). Riley used to follow Samantha everywhere. Now, the two tomcats, Gerald and Creamy, have already been neutered and vaccinated too. We cannot catch Samantha for neutering because she might still be feeding her babies somewhere in the neighbourhood. Riley was caught on 1st Dec and neutered on 9th Dec. She has also been vaccinated, dewormed and deflead, and has tested negative for FIV/FeLV. Riley is currently still living indoors because for her age, she still needs a booster vaccination around the end of this month. Whether we will release Riley as a CNRM-cat or try to train her to live indoors largely depends on Riley, if she can be happy living indoors but there are also other considerations such as neighbours who do not appreciate the presence of street animals (whether neutered or not).
Riley is an extremely cautious cat. Actually, the most cautious I’ve ever encountered, really.
Today is Day 13 of her living indoors in our house and she still prefers to hide behind the TV in the upstairs bedroom. She has free access to the rest of the house, but feels safer hiding upstairs.
This morning, Riley made a BIG stride and came downstairs for breakfast!
Converting her to a 100% raw diet is not as easy as I thought. Although she did once eat a 100% raw meal sometime last week, she knows she can be choosy and she knows I have all kinds of other yummy food available.
This is Tabs eating on the kitchen island. Tabs has been friendly with Riley.
Samantha still comes to eat several times every day. There has been no sign of her kittens anywhere. But before I caught Gerald, I saw him mating with Samantha. Gerald was the one who impregnated Samantha on the street in late September. I saw it and did my best to separate them, but Samantha got pregnant as a result of that. Samantha could be someone’s pet. There are quite a number of neighbours here who have pets but their pets are not neutered.
Would the government consider making it compulsory for pet owners to get all their pets neutered? Why wasn’t this considered in the formulation of the Animal Welfare Act of 2015 (the AWA2015) when this act was actually largely targeted at inculcating responsible pet ownership? In our unqualified opinion, there is only one clause in the act that includes street animals and that is Clause 29 on cruelty. But we stand corrected on this. In a forum where we participated to discuss the AWA2015 many years ago (this was after it was implemented), the authorities emphasized that the AWA2015 was for pets. “Read the preamble”, we were told. Yes, it is mentioned quite clearly there. To be fair, before the AWA2015 was formulated, the public was asked to contribute ideas of what should be included. Somehow, the compulsory neutering part did not make it to the table. Well, that’s democracy for you, isn’t it? It’s the voice of the majority that is heard.
So which act are we looking at in our appeal to YB Nga Kor Ming for an amendment to protect neutered (ear-notched) street animals? This would be the Local Government Act 171. Have you shared our open letter yet? If you haven’t, please help us share it. Remember, ours is a democratic country, they only listen to the voice of the majority. Thank you.
The letter: https://animalcare.my/2022/12/10/an-open-letter-to-yb-nga-kor-ming-minister-of-local-government/