Friday, December 19, 2008

Songkok Kitten

Another victim of festive spring cleaning - Songkok Kitten (discarded as an unwanted item)Oct 3, '07 10:15 AM
for everyone


This newborn kitten was dumped last Wednesday, 26 Sep at a rubbish dump in Jurong West Ave 1. The witness confronted the the dumper, an encik, who said as Hari Raya was coming, he was clearing out his ‘unwanted’ items, including this tiny kitten. The kitten was an offspring of his own unsterilised female cat.

This little bundle of furry helplessness is now called the Songkok kitten because the box it was contained in had the words ‘Songkok Melayu Al-Barakah’.



Why do irresponsible pet owners think it totally acceptable to dump pets when spring-cleaning? Hari Raya is such a meaningful festival, it is one of the most important events in the religious context of the Muslim way of life, being a milestone marker for the end of Ramadan.

And yet, in the name of celebrating Hari Raya, people throw away unwanted pets like this little kitten and the birdie cage babies without care. It does not matter whether the dumped pet cats are mature and supposingly able to fend for themselves (like this pair), or simply older kittens (like the Meowsons), or are totally defenceless like this little one. Such acts make a mockery of the spirit of this sacred day.

People who dump pets as part of their process of getting ready for Hari Raya defile the sanctity of this holy day.

I can only hope such people realise the crime they're committing and do not dump pets, whether full-grown or newborns from their unsterilised pets again for the next Hari Raya.