SOME months ago, a friend told me an HDB officer had passed her flat and noticed a cat sitting on the sofa in her living room. He whipped out a camera, snapped some photographs and threatened her with a fine. He also asked her to 'remove' the cat.

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Who are these people going around in this manner? Are they holding the new title of cats police?

Responsible pet ownings should be encouraged and not penalised.
Pet owners in HDB should not felt threatned by the authority.

I know cats are banned in HDB flats. What is the reason for the ban?

Read this
http://tippedearclan.wordpress.com/a...m-85-of-homes/

“cats are not allowed to be kept in HDB flats as they are nomadic in nature and it is difficult to confine them to flats. Cats can shed fur, dirty public places, make noise and cause disturbance. Despite the prohibition on cats, HDB has been receiving from residents numerous complaints relating to cats.

As our priority is to promote a pleasant living environment and good relationships for all residents in our housing estates, HDB will maintain its existing policy on not allowing cats to be kept in the flats.“

how come dogs allowed but cats not allowed ? HDB one eye big, one eye small !!

Ya, I find the reasons absurb. Dogs shed fur too. Domestic cats don't dirty places, they use the litter boxes. Neutered cats don't make noises and don't cause disturbances. The cat welfare societies have approached HDB to change this policy for several years but without success. I really hope HBD can be more fair and just in their policy making process.

Yeah, some selfish people dirty and pee in public places too, why dun hdb ban them as well?! So sad, its just not fair. Maybe the person calling the shot in HDB hates cats. I dun understand why AVA authorised pest controllers to remove cats. Since when cats become pests like cockroaches and rats??!! Ridiculous. Some humans are more 'pest like' than the cats!!

"Despite the prohibition on cats, HDB has been receiving from residents numerous complaints relating to cats." - indicates the ban is ineffective
What happens now is ridiculous. Any complaint of home cats roaming out is referred by the town council to the HBD as it involves "inside". HDB officers visit and threaten. These irresponsible owners abandon the cats downstairs or elsewhere. As the cats are now "outside", they become the town council's problem!
After a while these irresponsible owners pick up cats again and the vicious cycle continues! Slap these irresponsible with $$ and they will stop!

The Electric New Paper :

Cats are purr-fect pets, yes, even in HDB flats

OH, no, you’re thinking: Yet another animal column from Joanna Hughes.
By Joanna Hughes
07 March 2006

OH, no, you’re thinking: Yet another animal column from Joanna Hughes.

Please believe that I meant it when I vowed not long ago not to write another word about pets, large or small, for at least six months.

But then, someone wrote in to The New Paper asking HDB to revise their ban on cats and HDB wrote back.

And I just can’t let this one go.

‘We wish to explain that cats are not allowed to be kept in HDB flats as they are nomadic in nature and it is difficult to confine them to flats. Cats can shed fur, dirty public places, make noise and cause disturbance.’

The reply was from Mrs Foo-Ho Yoke Ming, the HDB’s Deputy Director (Branch Operations).
First of all, cats are peculiarly attached to places, according to books on cat behaviour.

Cats have travelled thousands of miles to return to their homes. In my block alone, a young cat abandoned by her elderly owner when his family put him in a home still waits outside some two years later.

Cats like to be inside, if they are neutered and their needs (food, clean water and clean litter) are met. Unsterilised cats will respond to nature’s most urgent imperative, but a simple, painless and relatively inexpensive operation can take care of that.

My cats have always been house cats and I challenge anyone to show me happier, healthier cats.
As for shedding fur, surely a vacuum cleaner or a dust mop will take care of that at home. Although admittedly, they also shed fur in public places.

On that subject, the biggest shedders I have ever met after dogs are women, as anyone who has seen the sinks in a ladies’ loo can testify.

Do cats pee in lifts like humans? I had a colleague who had to pick her way daily past a pile of human faeces left on the stairs leading to her flat.

Cats at least bury their poo. I have yet to see a cat deposit a child’s used and dirty diaper on the pavement or throw a lit cigarette into a dustbin or park illegally, thus blocking the SCDF from putting out the fire caused by the lit cigarette.

Cats lick themselves frequently and do not smell, unlike many fellow travellers on the MRT.
Yes, a territorial cat fight can cause a few minutes of yowling, but compare that to tipsy lovers’ quarrel, an all-night mahjong game, a boisterous karaoke session or even a void deck full of possibly illegal gamblers.

Now that I think about it, maybe the biggest problems in HDB estates walk on two legs.
I don’t want to make this another Eastern vs Western values issue, but in the West, most apartments allow cats but not dogs.

Or if they do allow dogs, the owners must pay a higher security deposit. Dogs mate and squabble over territory. They shed and poo and pee, inside and out. They chew walls and tear up doors. They will howl when lonely.

And many of the more active breeds, like the small terriers, are almost impossible to confine happily in a small flat.

Why not try out a policy that allows cats in HDB flats provided the owner can provide proof of sterilisation and micro-chipping, plus a pledge to keep the cat indoors?

Or even demonstrate that he or she knows cat care basics, like the importance of a clean litter box and proper veterinary care.

A licence can cover the costs that such checks would incur. And let cat lovers enjoy the same healthy benefits of pet ownership - legally.

The biggest obstacle to removing this nonsensical rule is that none of the people who have the ability to rationalise this and make a sensible decision actually lives in HDB flats - including all OUR "representatives" in Parliament, all our ELECTED ministers, all the top management and policy makers at HDB etc. Even if they are cat owners and cat lovers themselves, they exist above and beyond this illogically discriminatory rule which applies only to plebeian HDB dwellers, and these policy makers apparently don't give a damn about anything that does not concern them personally or has to do with dollars and cents.