*Disclaimer #1: This piece was written in a time when my emotions are volatile. I have tried to be as calm as possible, but just wanted to declare that I was emotional.
*Disclaimer #2: I do work for an organisation at Spooner Road, which is the context to which I have been able to interact and get to know the residents there, but this is purely my personal view and is definitely not representative of the organisation’s stand. If you have anything against this, take it up with me and me alone. I wrote this, I stand by it, but don’t drag people around me down for it.
*Disclaimer #3: I am no expert in the area of animal welfare. I know that I love animals and that’s about it. I am up for having a calm, discussion with anyone who would like to educate me a little more in this area. This was written from a place of: I love the cats, I see that the community loves the cats, I don’t understand why the cats were taken away so forcefully, at night, without people knowing.
*Admin thing to note. If you are really upset by what I wrote and you really want to have a conversation, you can contact me via the comments section or on telegram @jessagal.
I am mad. I am emotional. I am in no way being super objective about this. But hear me out.
Spooner Road is a place with a rich heritage. It’s no Chinatown or Little India, but from its days from being a dorm for the railway workers, so many things has happened there. It is a place with so many stories to tell, but so many stories are left untold.
The thing is, Spooner Road has never had the best reputation. Spooner houses families who have low income. And while I don’t want to spend the whole post talking about this, we all know that these families are facing multiple stressors. The Spooner Cats are one constant for them, in a volatile world. If you google Spooner Road, all you get will be articles painting a bleak picture of what life is like there. Drugs, fights, abusers. But that is not the full story of Spooner Road. Why does no one see that?
I have been in the area, working, for more than a year. I know people who have been there way longer. And I hear stories of strength, stories of parents doing everything they can for their children in spite of all their circumstances. I’ve heard residents share with me that although they don’t have much, they want to teach their children that you cannot rely on social support. You have to work for the things you want. I’ve spoken to residents who possibly volunteer more than you and I. I’ve seen residents who don’t have much, but willingly contribute what they can, when they can.
Turning our attention back to our cats, they are well loved. They interact with the children and the children play with them. Our residents are not well off, but we see so many of them spending money buying them cat food the moment they have a little to spare.
I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure cats who have been mistreated by humans don’t come running towards us for a belly rub or a scratch. Yet, that is what I’m greeted by every time I arrive.
Sure, some of them are cool little ice princes and princesses who couldn’t care less whether I was there or not, but they still come running every time they hear the bag of food being opened. They jump incredible heights (incredible by my standards at least), to their regular feeding station, then proceed to not finish their food.
Again, I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that indicated that they are well loved and well fed in the community. I’m also pretty sure that cats that are underfed don’t waste food.
One thing I am immensely confused by though, why is it such a huge problem for our cats to have free access across the 2 blocks? Our cats are not stupid either. They know where their home is, they know where to go to get food when they’re hungry, so why is it such a big problem for them to have their freedom? While I understand the concerns of them being run over by cars, etc, I think what we also need to be mindful of is that this is their home. These cats have been living there longer than we have been there. They have accepted the presence of humans into what used to be their exclusive space. These humans clearly love and respect them, so why does a third party, someone with no knowledge of this ecosystem, have the right to come in and remove these residents?
I also share with my friends, that Spooner is basically a kampung. While I didn’t grow up in a kampung, I’m under the impression that this is what kampung is like. You see animals walking around freely like they own the place, but these animals also know when and where to go to get fed. These animals might, in name, belong to one person, but in spirit belong to the whole community. So if this is exactly what is happening, then why are we crushing this kampung spirit we keep claiming that we are building?
If I go down further on that path, Spooner has been left out of so many large scaled initiatives. My relatives place are being upgraded, along with so many others in Singapore, and while I don’t have exact numbers (I can google and find, but that’s besides the point), I am willing to bet that the infrastructure at Spooner is older than any of these flats.
Being a rental estate, they already don’t have much. There are no facilities, children have to cross the street to get to another estate for something as simple as a playground. There are no common spaces for anyone to hang out at, yet our resourceful residents build their own with what limited furniture and space they have, putting the space outside their homes to good use. They don’t have much, but they are hella resourceful.
At the end of the day, with each passing minute, it seems that the chances of me seeing my babies and bringing them home again are only getting lower and lower, so I guess that the only thing I hope to be able to achieve with this post is to set the record straight. The Spooner cats might not have lived the most luxurious lifestyle, but they were home, they were free and they were in their original habitat. The Spooner residents might not have been rich, but that took nothing away from how much they loved the cats. They may not have the means to do things like microchip the cat, but the question comes back to do you really need to do that in a kampung?
The Cats of Spooner Road are not just animals who lived there, they were the original residents, they were well loved by the community. They are an icon that future visitors of Spooner Road will not get to meet, because they have been forcefully rehomed, against their will and despite plenty of efforts, by people who know nothing of the community and ecosystem they belong in, by people who aren’t open to explore alternatives.
I also just wanted to end this post by saying, every estate will contain every kind of individual you can think of, people who love cats, people who don’t. Sometimes, some of these people who don’t like cats go a step further and actively try to harm the cats. But in situations like these, shouldn’t we be trying to work with those few individuals and finding a way to protect our cats against these actions instead of just forcefully rehoming them the first chance we get, with no regard for the majority of the population who actually love and care for these cats?
Why the difference in treatment? Is it just because it is Spooner Road, a place that houses the low income?
One Step At A Time 