Thursday, April 9, 2009

Making scapegoats of rats!

Help Stop the Sale and Use of Glue Traps


Rat stuck to glue trap

Rat #0925 arrived at Wildcare on June 27, 2007 helplessly stuck to a glue trap. The homeowner had set the trap for this very purpose-- to catch a rat, but witnessing the cruel and painful suffering caused by the glue trap prompted this animal's rescue.

Rat under anaesthesia being unstuck

At WildCare, wildlife technicians put the rat under general anesthesia to relieve his pain and stress and prevent him from struggling and becoming further injured as they worked with an anti-stick solvent (the Elmer's stuff) to free him.

Finally unstuck but still under anaesthesia

After twenty minutes of teamwork rat #0925 was free from the trap and put on oxygen.

The consequences of glue traps are devastating, rat #0925 had endured hours if not days stuck, frightened, starving and dehydrating. As he frantically tried to free himself, the trap pulled out his fur, leaving painfully raw patches of skin. Nonetheless he was lucky. Lucky, because his struggle was seen, where many glue trap victims are only viewed after suffering a long and drawn-out death. A person saw the cruel and drawn out death a glue trap causes, and brought rat #0925 to WildCare.



Is NEA trying to make rats the scapegoats just as cats were made the scapegoats during the SARS crisis?

If human beings are more responsible in NOT littering and in keeping garbage in tight bins, there will be NO rats and NO birds to come visiting!
Using glue traps to catch the rats is gross cruelty!

Vibrio parahaemolyticus - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"While infection can occur via the fecal-oral route, ingestion of bacteria in raw or undercooked seafood, usually oysters, is the predominant cause the acute gastroenteritis caused by V. parahaemolyticus.[3] Wound infections also occur, but are less common than seafood-borne disease."



MY PAPER THURSDAY APRIL 9, 2009
Rats! Geylang Serai wet market has pest problem

HERE is a rat problem at a Geylang Serai temporary market, right next to the hawker centre where 137 fell ill after eating Indian rojak from a popular stall there.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) was alerted to the problem in February when the Geylang Serai temporary wet market first started operating.
Fruit and food left out in the open also attracted mynahs.
Those details emerged at a press conference yesterday, even as another woman died after eating from the stall last Friday.
Madam Norani Kassim, 58, who had fallen into a coma, died shortly before 10am yesterday, five days after she was warded in Alexandra Hospital’s intensive-care unit.
The first casualty was canteen assistant Aminah Samijo, 57, who died on Monday from complications arising from food poisoning.
When told that a second person had died after eating from his stall, the stall’s owner, Mr Sheik Allaudin Mohideen, 70, could only utter: “I don’t know what to say.”
The NEA told reporters yesterday that it is not responsible for hygiene at temporary markets, but only at permanent markets owned by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources.

Preliminary investigations by the Health Ministry showed that two of the victims tested positive for the vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria, which is a common cause of food poisoning associated with consumption of raw or partially-cooked seafood.

Meanwhile, the Geylang Serai temporary market has been shut till Friday. Stallholders received letters from the NEA informing them of a “spring-cleaning exercise and pest-control works”.
Since last Friday, cleaners and pest controllers had caught 41 rats at the Geylang Serai market, and more were found yesterday as spring cleaning began.
– THE STRAITS TIMES






13 test positive for deadly bacteria

TODAY • Friday • April 10, 2009

Foodhandlers at the Rojak Geylang Serai stall used the neighbouring mee siam booth to store and wash their equipment.

According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), they also shared the refrigerator in the mee siam stall.

The MOH said some 154 people came down with food poisoning last week and 48 were hospitalised. Six patrons are still recovering in hospital.

Tests confirmed 13 cases to be positive for the bacteria vibrio parahaemolyticus. Among them was Madam Aminah Samijo, who died on Monday. According to MOH, the bacteria, traced to the consumption of rojak from the stall, was most likely due to cross-contamination of rojak and raw seafood ingredients harbouring the bacteria.

Three of the five food handlers at Rojak Geylang Serai have tested negative and the results of the other two are pending.

Meanwhile, hundreds turned up for the funeral of Mdm Noraini Kassim yesterday, the second person to die after eating tainted rojak at the temporary market.

Family members said they are waiting for an official report from the National Environment Agency before deciding their next course of action. ESTHER NG



Yes, ban glue traps, says SPCA

Straits Times
STForum Online
Feb 27, 2009

Yes, ban glue traps, says SPCA

I REFER to Wednesday's online letter, 'Glue traps are cruel', and would like to thank Ms Jeslyn Long for her concerns.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) wrote in to the authorities last week following the article, '66 rats killed in blitz at Skate Park' in The Sunday Times (Feb 15) to express its stand - that glue trapping is cruel. The SPCA also asked how the rats were disposed of, as this is also a cause for concern.

Unfortunately, the employment of glue traps to catch rats is an accepted practice in Singapore. The SPCA would like to see them banned.

In Australia, rat traps have been banned since 2006. The ban was enacted via the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act on the grounds of cruelty to the trapped animal, be it rat or other species.

It is important for sources of food that attract rats to be better secured, so the rat population is kept at bay.

Deirdre Moss (Ms)

Executive Officer

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Ban use of glue traps

Straits Times
Online STForum
Feb 25, 2009

Ban use of glue traps

I REFER to the article headlined "66 rats killed in blitz at Skate Park" in The Sunday Times (Feb 15).

While I acknowledge that the rat menace must be controlled, I was disturbed to read that cruel methods such as glue traps were being used to kill the rats.

Animals caught in such traps may take days to die. Rodents caught in glue traps have been known to gnaw off their own limbs in attempts to escape, with some suffering dislocated bones or having bits of their skin torn off.

Some are thrown into garbage bins alive to die slowly from dehydration, stress or suffocation.

Glue traps are indiscriminate and also ensnare non-target animals such as birds, lizards and other small animals.

In countries such as the United States and Britain, animal activists have campaigned for a ban on such devices, and some Australian states have enacted regulations to ban their use. Why are they still used in Singapore? Glue traps are inhumane and should be banned.

Jeslyn Long (Ms)

Official statement on rojak poisoning incident