Back on June 26th, Singaporean authorities managed to gain access to a small apartment in the south-east Asian city-state and made a shocking discovery.
Alerted by neighbors who’d made various complaints about the terrible smell coming from a woman’s home, officers found just about 100 cats shut in a tiny apartment, living in disgusting, unhygienic conditions.
A large number of the cats were extremely sick, some were near death, because they’d received no medical attention. The authorities contacted the Cat Welfare Society, which is an association based in Singapore, as well as Maychoo Ling, a volunteer used to rescuing cats from terrible situations.
Maychoo has devoted in upwards of 14 years of her life to saving cats, but this was the first time that she had seen so many crammed into such a tiny place. She explained to The Dodo,
“The stench was unbearable. Pee and poop was not cleaned up. They were seen being fed with kibbles on the soiled floor instead of bowls. Unclean shower pails were used as their water bowls. It was just so filthy and messy”.
She also made mention of the deplorable state of health the pets were in:
Their fur was actually sticky. Some of the cats had the flu. Some had only an eye with the other one blind with severe infection and filled with pus. One had open wounds with maggots. The long-fur ones were severely matted. Most were completely caked with poop.
The officers were horrified at how the owner, a backyard breeder who hoped to sell the cats, had managed to collect that many animals. After inspecting each of the felines, they realized that none of them had been spayed or neutered, which allowed them to breed with each other unsupervised. The condition they were in made them totally unsalable, but she did nothing to try and heal them, or stop them from having kittens.
While 93 of the cats were saved, one kitten unfortunately died not survive after being taken from the house. Others were described as having lost the will to live:
“There was a group of cats on the bench that remained undisturbed while we were busy getting the cats into the carriers. I was worried if they were sick. I kept waking them up. But they just refused to open their eyes to respond. To me, it seemed that they had already given up hope. There was no quality of life at all. They were just waiting to die”.
According to Maychoo, a good portion of the cats have become more energetic and sociable after the rescue:
“They seem much happier and have more spark in their eyes. They are often seen kneading, which means they are happy and relaxed. These 94 cats have finally broken free from such a horrific life and are able to start a new journey”.
These cats are currently being cared for at several different catteries and have their own Facebook page, Saving The Siameses, with posts about just how they are being cared for now and the masses of kind donations they have received to help the animals recover from their ordeal.
For more information, you can follow the work of the Cat Welfare Society here.
