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She helped sterilise more than 3,000 stray cats

SINGAPORE — Ms Penny Tan is responsible for the sterilisation of more than 3,000 stray cats over the last 10 years and even stopped work to look after those under her charge.

SINGAPORE — Ms Penny Tan is responsible for the sterilisation of more than 3,000 stray cats over the last 10 years and even stopped work to look after those under her charge.

The 62-year-old has also become an expert at trapping strays and a pillar of the cat sterilisation programme in Chong Pang estate, imparting her skills to at least 15 care-givers thus far.

This weekend, Ms Tan will be among six people honoured by the Cat Welfare Society for their efforts in the responsible management of the cat population here, as part of its photo exhibition at City Square Mall.

Ms Tan, who has been a care-giver for more than 10 years, recounted that her work began when she moved to Yishun in 2001.

“The environment was very bad, the cats were not sterilised and kittens were getting into accidents and I had to clear the many kitten corpses that were around,” she said.

She has since embarked on a sterilisation programme for not only her estate, but has also had a hand in sterilising cats in Bukit Timah, Geylang and Toa Payoh.

Ms Tan is also responsible for nursing sick cats back to health and rehoming ones that she has rescued. Asked why she has gone to such great lengths for the strays, she said: “If I do not do it, who will? I do not want to see them suffer further.”

According to the Cat Welfare Society, the sterilisation programmes across the island, combined with the efforts by more than 1,000 volunteers, have more than halved the community cat population and reduced the annual cat mortality rate from culling to 4,000 from 13,000 in the last decade.

The photo exhibition will take place at Heart for Animals, a community event organised by a group of students from Republic Polytechnic in partnership with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore.

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