Speech by SMS Desmond Lee at SOSD Charity Dinner
Aug 20, 2016
A very good evening and thank you for having me here for SOSD’s first Charity Dinner.
Since it was formed in 2011, SOSD has made a significant contribution to the animal welfare cause in Singapore.
You have helped to raise awareness about responsible pet ownership, and you have found good homes for many of our Singapore Specials. In fact, since July 2011, you have helped to rehome 649 Singapore Specials.
SOSD has been breaking new ground together with its partners. On two islands off Singapore, you have pioneered and pushed the boundaries.
On Jurong Island, there is a Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) project, a big project that is ongoing and will take many years. Although it is a volunteer-driven organisation, SOSD runs it on a day-in, day-out basis with partners who make TNR a success.
We also have a project with SOSD on Pulau Ubin. There are many Singapore Specials on the island, and thanks to SOSD who is a key partner, you have managed to trap, neuter and release 100% of all the dogs on Pulau Ubin. It is magnificent results, and a testimony that some of these projects can make a difference to animal welfare.
Tonight, you are going one step further. Knowing that rehoming is a key strategy of animal welfare, you have sought to change perceptions tonight about the adoption of black dogs through your dinner theme and campaign, aptly entitled “Addicted to Black”. We hope that through this campaign, the numbers will show results.
As I said earlier, rehoming is an important and critical animal welfare strategy, to help abandoned and stray animals get off our streets. They should not be there. They are exposed to the elements, exposed to cruelty, vagaries of life out there. So the work that you do downstream to rehome Singapore Specials complements upstream efforts to get pets sterilised. This will also reduce pet abandonment through a combination of education and certainly today, much tougher law enforcement.
At the same time, we are a very small and densely populated city. Friction between people can easily arise as our living spaces overlap. Therefore, it is important for rehomed dogs to be well trained and have proper guidance from their owners, especially in our homes and public areas.
That’s why we strongly support Project ADORE, a programme run by the SPCA, Action for Singapore Dogs and SOSD in partnership with HDB and AVA, where people are allowed to keep our “Singapore Specials”, as pets in our HDB flats. Under Project ADORE, both owners and dogs have to undergo training to minimise inconvenience to their neighbours. It is not just the case of rehoming our Singapore Specials in HDB flats, our partners actually knock on the doors of the neighbours to make the adoption not just by the owner, but by the community and the immediate neighbourhood. This is an excellent rehoming model, thanks to the hard work of SOSD volunteers and those of other animal welfare groups.
Since its inception in 2012, 370 of our Singapore Specials have found homes under Project ADORE alone, and we have not received a single complaint about any of our Project ADORE dogs! This speaks volumes of the dedication and ownership of the issue. This would not have been possible without the help of dedicated animal welfare groups like SOSD and others who help not only with the rehoming and the paperwork, but with training. I hope more people will step forward and join us in Project ADORE. In fact, we have possibly new partners to come on board in the months and weeks ahead.
Many have asked if we can increase the size and weight for Project ADORE, and if you look at the developments, we have been increasing the number of partners and it will take some time. With Project ADORE, whenever we make changes incrementally, we gain support, and ultimately it is not just about people, but the welfare of the animals. If we keep that in focus, we will get there. We need your support as we review this.
Animal welfare groups in Singapore like SOSD depend on public support to keep up your humane work. This makes events like this charity dinner very important. So besides giving generous donations, I would also like to encourage all of you to support SOSD and other AWGs in Singapore by contributing to volunteer your time and love, and spreading the message about their work.
I wish all of you an enjoyable evening ahead, and I wish SOSD all success in the work they do. Thank you.