On boycotting shops that sell pets:
Many pet shops fail to provide proper veterinary care to animals and often sell sick and injured animals... Those who breed millions of dogs and cats each year for profit are contributing to the companion animal overpopulation crisis. Every newborn puppy or kitten means one home fewer for a dog or cat desperately waiting in a shelter or roaming the streets...Make sure that you do not support animal abuse—purchase companion animal supplies only from stores that do not sell live animals. Inform shops that sell animals that you are boycotting their business until they switch to “supplies only”...
On boycotting pet farms:
As long as pet shops churn out puppies, unwanted dogs in animal shelters will be killed. And most pups sold in stores come from hellholes called puppy mills, where mother dogs and “studs” spend lonely lives in miserable cages, producing litter after litter, like so many widgets off an assembly line.
Despite this, there are still many hapless Singaporeans who frequent the pet farms in Pasir Ris and buy pets from pet shops. It is no wonder they cannot seem to go out of business. It is simple economics - don't buy, then they cannot sell - supply and demand. At first, the fall-out will be the animals that grow too big and cannot be sold. These animals will go to shelters if they are male, and back into the breeding area if they are female (in animal husbandry you only need one male to many females, hence most of the dogs for sale are often male dogs). Eventually, all will end up in shelters. But if the shops are not boycotted now, they will keep producing young animals, and the vicious cycle will continue. It is either animals abandoned from farms now, or much more, later down the road.
The only way this cycle can be stopped is through human intervention. It is impossible otherwise. Yes, human means you. Animals cannot speak for themselves, which means that we cannot possibly wait the situation out and hope it solves itself, like how Marxism pontificates that the masses will eventually rise up and overthrow their rulers. The animals cannot overthrow their cruel rulers, i.e. the owners of pet farms and shops. They need you to do something about it.
AVA laws are archaic and we cannot hope for the 'government to close down these farms'. Legislation takes years to change and by then, it will be much more countless cases of animal cruelty on your hands. If we lived in an ideal world, AVA would change its laws in a snap, in so many ways: closing down pet farms, setting enforceable quotas and standards on breeding, etc. At present, you only need a license that comes at a price, and alongside a course, as well as some basic cleanliness factors; much more needs to be changed. But what is set on paper takes time to change, if at all, depending on your political inclination.
Cruel are also those who breed their pets, but that is another story. It is another contentious issue - home breeders may actually produce better pets than farms. But there are not enough laws in place to regulate home breeding properly in our country. That, and the fact that animal shelters receive more animals in need than there are homes available, hence negating the need to breed even more pets at home or otherwise.
For today, make it your resolution never to step into a pets-for-sale zone ever again. Stop the cycle of cruelty.
(Unconvinced? If you are one of those who frequent pet farms and shops that breed pets, ask to take a look at the breeding areas. They will either say no or yes, either way, it ain't pretty. If that doesn't change your mind, I don't know what will.)
If you are friends with the pet shop owners near you that sell live pets, convince the shops to stop selling animals. Not only will they save on the AVA licensing fees required to sell pets, they are improving their shops' reputation and goodwill branding, and will actually improve in their business in the long run. For those living in and around Eunos, nearby pet shops that sell dogs or cats include:
- Pets Tales along Still Road, opposite Eunos MRT
- Sam's Pet and Aquarium (Marine Parade), near Parkway Parade
