CCTVs, knocking on doors: What else will it take to nab community cat abusers?
Volunteers and feeders try very hard to keep community cats safe by conducting community patrols or putting them in pet boarding facilities. Yet, even with their best efforts, they still come across cats that were badly abused or had died unnaturally.
A photo of King Kong the community cat placed at its memorial at 511A Yishun Street 51 on May 16, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Taufiq Zalizan)
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In May 2023, the lifeless and bloodied body of a young tuxedo tabby cat named Tuxy was found at the open-air car park next to a public housing block in Hougang.
The gruesome find shocked volunteer feeders in the area who immediately sprang into action to gather information to catch the abuser.
Ms Jasmine Tan, 30, a cat feeder in the area, said “We went door-to-door personally to visit each unit and requested video footage from those with a camera facing the corridors.”
Out of the footage they received was one recording that showed what was believed to be Tuxy being thrown from a height. The group sent this footage to the National Parks Board (NParks), but there had been no news on whether the abuser was nabbed.
CNA TODAY has reached out to NParks to ask about the status of this case.
While waiting for closure from this incident, more instances of abuse involving community cats have surfaced.
Just earlier this month, in an act described as "appalling cruelty" by Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, a community cat in Yishun called King Kong was found with its eyes gouged out, among other horrific injuries.
Within days, another cat called Shere Khan was found at a car park in Punggol with severe injuries and both its eye globes were protruding significantly from their sockets. It had to be euthanised later.
That same month, another man was charged after he allegedly killed a cat and abused four others in Toa Payoh estate in September and October 2024.
Such news is cold comfort for animal lovers, because the number of abusers brought before the court of law – even though the number has increased through the years – is minuscule compared to the hundreds of cats that have died from alleged abuse.
NParks investigated an average of about 1,200 cases of alleged animal cruelty and welfare cases yearly from 2017 to 2020, the Ministry of National Development stated in September 2021.
From 2017 to 2021, 40 persons have been sentenced in court and fined, while 23 persons have been sentenced in court and jailed.
In 2024, NParks received around 60 cases of alleged animal cruelty involving community cats specifically, it told CNA TODAY on Friday. Of these cases, evidence of animal cruelty was found for five of these cases upon investigation.
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