Nurturing Kindness, One Animal at a Time
AnimalCare’s Neutering, Medical and Vaccination Aid is only given to those who practise small-scale CNRM, caring for the animals – for life!
Why street dogs and cats live amongst us
It was our human ancestors, many thousands of years ago, who left food scraps in their nomadic lifestyle so animals followed their tracks. It was also our humans ancestors who domesticated the wolves and wild cats as companion animals or later, used cats to ward off vermin from their farms, dogs to guard their property. But dogs and cats breed on their own. They do not go through menopause; dogs can breed twice a year while cats can breed up to four times a year. It is how Nature is, for the survival of the species. But we have built our concrete jungles and dogs and cats find it difficult to survive in them. Many street animals also may not be “genuine strays”. They are abandoned unneutered pet animals due to irresponsible pet ownership, or the offspring of such abandoned pets.
The bottom line is this: Animals did not choose to live amongst us. We destroyed their natural homes. We brought them in to live with us. It is only reasonable that we help them by controlling their population through neutering so that they do not breed at an exponential rate and suffer on the street.
C = Care
N = Neuter
R = Return
M = Manage
Care – Start by caring for the street animals on your street, ie. taking an interest in their wellbeing and safety, and feeding them. Food and safety, within reasonable means.
Neuter – Take the animals to a vet of your choice for neutering. All neutered animals are to be ear-notched to indicate that they have been neutered. This is so that it is possible to identify by sight that an animal has already been neutered and to prevent the females from being caught and reopened up for the spaying surgery. The neutered males can be identified by the absence of their testicles but in the case of undescended testicles, that could also pose a problem. Hence, ear-notching is very important. If you require financial aid for neutering, please contact us: www.myanimalcare.org/aid/. To qualify for our aid, all neutered animals must be ear-notched.
Return – The ideal option is to return the neutered animals to the colony where the caregiver continues to look after and manage the animals. The environment would have to be animal-friendly and safe, and preferably with no complaints from other humans (we do not want them to be captured by the authorities). The benefit of returning them to the same colony is that it helps preserve the eco-system and due to the natural territorial behaviour of animals, the neutered animals may prevent the entry of other unneutered strays from outside. Thus, the number of animals in that colony is maintained as these neutered animals will not breed anymore. They live on until their they pass away naturally.
Manage – After the animal has been returned to the colony, please continue to look after them. Get them vaccinated (we offer aid: www.myanimalcare.org/vacc/). Take them to the vet when they are sick. Managing is for life.
If a new animal enters the colony, repeat the CNRM process.
Note: In areas where there are complaints about the presence of street animals or any potential dangers, it is the responsibility of the caregiver to ensure the safety of these animals. In such areas, the caregiver may have to consider rehoming or adopting the animals. Safety comes first.
In such cases, then R = Rehome.
With CNRM in practice, we hope to achieve the following:
1. Control the stray population through CNRM.
2. Reduce the number of complaints from the public once the stray population is under control.
3. Get more humans to accept the presence of neutered street animals in their neighbourhood.
The importance of ear-notching
A neutered community animal will have their ear notched so that they will not be recaptured. Notching = a small V-cut on its right ear or a flat tip. It is not easy for a vet to identify if a female animal has already been spayed as the incision mark fades with time, the absence of the uterus is also not identifiable by ultrasound or X-ray. There had been cases of already-spayed community animals being captured and subjected to the spaying surgery again because their ears were not notched. This unfortunate incidence can be prevented if all female animals have their ears notched. Ear-notching should also be done for male animals so that a neutered male can be identified by sight without the need to check their scrotum.
Start small and keep it small
Our aim is to work with and help small-time rescuers and feeders who are keen to help the animals on their streets or in their neighbourhood.
We strongly encourage you to start off this programme in your neighbourhood. Start small and keep it small. For each animal that is neutered, HUNDREDS of unwanted births and untold suffering can be prevented.
Street animals need our help.
They are being captured, removed and even destroyed because people complain about them. Stop the complaints, and the killing will stop. One way is to control the population and stabilising colonies through CNRM.
Our Hope
We hope more people will see the need to implement CNRM as a long-term solution to the stray animal problem. Hands-on participation is most appreciated by those who can. For those who cannot, we hope you will support those who can in other ways.
To those who find street animals a nuisance and a pest in your neighbourhood, we appeal for your kind understanding that animals do not know any better and hence, cannot be expected to behave as we want them to; we appeal to your good heart to please not complain as it would cost them their lives. There are other ways to keep the animals from straying into your compound (wire netting, lemon, citrus scents, the water hose, etc.). Please do not put in a complaint to the authorities. Animals may be killed as a result of that one phonecall to complain.
Conclusion
Neuter-Return is practised in many Western countries as well as in Sri Lanka, Bali, India, Thailand, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait. It is definitely a more humane and compassionate way for stray animal management.
For us, we would like to include the C=Caring and M=Manage components where street animals will become community animals who are cared for and looked after by the residents for the rest of their lives.
Where street animals are born is where they belong. This earth belongs to them too.
Killing is never a solution to any problem. What goes around, comes around.
Please support our efforts through your active participation in this programme. Please help us spread the word and send this link out as widely as you can.
Live and let live.
Let’s live harmoniously with them and help them.
Credit
My utmost gratitude to Dr Tan Chek Wee for teaching me all about the TNRM concept.
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