NEWS
ACRES IN THE NEWS
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TODAY
12 November 2004
Acres ups the award
Offers $6,000 for information on captive animals
by Tan Tsen-Waye
A thousand dollars in cash per animal was not enough to get animal welfare activists the information they needed to save a tiger and a Malayan sun bear from illegal captivity.
So, Mr Ramachandra, 53, an animal lover and the owner of Indian vegetarian restaurant Ananda Bhavan, decided to offer his assistance.
He will donate $4,000 to the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), which this week launched a search operation for the two animals purportedly being kept by two private estate owners.
The reward for information leading to the successful confiscation of each animal is now $3,000. This should persuade someone to come forward with the exact address of where the animals are being kept, said Acres president Louis Ng.
Since Monday, the group has received more than 20 calls confirming previous tip-offs that the sun bear was sighted in Mandai and the tiger heard and seen in the Sixth Avenue area.
However, Mr Ng lamented that the callers have remained vague.
“They are probably friends of the owners and don’t want to get them in trouble. Others are afraid they’ll have to be witnesses. Some ask what’s in it for them, and put down the phone because the reward is not sufficient,” said Mr Ng.
On Wednesday, seven officers from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority and Acres Wildlife Rescue Team combed the Mandai area. Their efforts were futile, hampered by the sheer number of houses.
Yesterday, Acres staff and volunteers took to the streets of the Sixth Avenue neighbourhood – in a black car with a caged stuff tiger on top – to place fliers in each mailbox. But, several residents expressed shock and bemusement at the group’s mission, with one of them remarking: “How long have the Americans been searching for Osama bin Laden?”
If no informant comer forward within 10 days, Mr Ramachandra said he would meet with Acres to discuss the next course of action. The animal lover confessed to a habit of picking up strays and giving people money so that they do not have to give up their pets.
Mr Ng has called on the Government to review the existing Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act. A fine of $5,000 and/or jail for up to a year for possession of an illegal Cites specimen was “not a sufficient deterrent”, he argued.
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