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First Wildlife Rescue Centre in S'pore

Singapore will have its first wildlife rescue centre by April next year.

As reporter Yasmine Yahya explains, there's no space left at the Singapore Zoo for the confiscated wild animals to call home.

The rescue centre will be located at the Sungei Tengah Agrotech Park .

Once completed, it will be able to hold 400 animals, including primates, reptiles, marsupials, tortoises and turtles.

All of them will be exotic animals that have been seized from dealers and pet owners.

The centre's being set up by Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, or Acres.

Its executive director Louis Ng says the animals will be kept at the rescue centre until they are ready to be repatriated to their native countries.

"Over the past 5 years, over 4,000 animals have been confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade in Singapore and it's quite an urgent need to provide these animals with a proper home. Not just on the welfare grounds, but also that these animals have been illegally traded, and there needs to be a place where the authorities can put them so they can be looked after properly."

Besides housing these animals, Mr Ng says the rescue centre will also be a good way to educate the public on which animals cannot be kept as pets.

Acres plans to open the rescue centre to the public.

But it won't be anything like a zoo.

Visitors will have to follow a guided tour, and they can only observe the animals from about 5 metres away.

"When the visitors come in, whatever animals they see are those that are commonly illegally traded. So it's much easier to relate to them that these are the animals that are illegal, rather than say, showing them pictures, giving them a talk. And hopefully it's more of a positive learning experience and they become more aware much faster."

The problem, Mr Ng says, is not that people don't care about animal welfare laws.

But with exotic animals such as snakes and star tortoises being sold openly at pet shops, many don't realise that it's illegal to keep them.

Acres needs over 700,000 dollars to build the rescue centre.

It's appealing to the public for donations.

For more details, log on to www.acres.org.sg

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