NEWS
ACRES IN THE NEWS
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The Straits Times
12 October 2006
First wildlife rescue centre to open next year
$700,000 facility in Sungei Tengah will house up to 400 illegal pets
By Tania Tan
Animals saved from the illegal pet trade will get a second shot at survival when Singapore 's first wildlife rescue centre opens in April next year.
The animal welfare group, Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), is setting up the 2-ha sanctuary in Sungei Tengah, in the north-western part of Singapore .
The $700,000 facility will house up to 400 illegal pets, such as tortoises, macaques and snakes, seized by the authorities.
In the past 1 ½ years, about 150 endangered animals have been seized from homes and pet shops.
Animals sent to the centre will either be kept there for the rest of their natural lives, or until they can be sent back to their native countries.
The rescue centre will run guided tours to educate the public on the wildlife species hawked on the black market and the pets they cannot keep, said Acres executive director Louis Ng.
According to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), animals that may be kept as domestic pets are dogs, cats, hamsters, chinchillas, guinea pigs, rabbits, red-eared sliders (a type of terrapin) and many species of birds and fish.
But a global trade in other more exotic species has mushroomed.
Interpol, the international police organisation, has estimated that the illegal trade is worth US$5 billion (S$8 billion).
Singapore is often the “middle man” in the trade-animals often pass through here en route to buyers in Indonesia or other parts of Asia , said Mr Ng.
More than 6,000 such animals have been confiscated here since 2001.
Nr Ng noted that many of these creatures suffer a cruel fate, with dealers often transporting them in cramped crates. They are often found in poor condition or dead.
For example, in June, only 70 out of 2,500 endangered box turtles from Indonesia were found alive when the shipment was seized by the authorities here.
Even seized animals have faced uncertain futures. AVA said that some are re-homed in foreign wildlife rescue centres, others are placed in the Singapore Zoo for a period of recovery before they are sent back to their native countries.
But this newspaper reported in April that the zoo was getting crowded with these animals, so some confiscated species were being put to sleep or sent to overcrowded facilities here.
Setting up the rescue centre on land leased from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) marks another milestone by animal activists here, who have been in the news for their efforts in nabbing cat killers or for setting up sanctuaries for abandoned animals.
Mr Clarence Ti, SLA 's director of land and business management, said the centre was the result of Acres' “taking action”, instead of just “talking and complaining”.
Previous bids to home wild animals have not panned out.
For example, a group of expatriates proposed that the deserted island of Pulau Tekukor be turned into a monkey haven, but the idea fell through because lifestyle and entertainment projects were coming up there.
Open-concept enclosures
The Acres wildlife rescue centre will cover 2ha at the Sungei Tengah Agrotech Park .
The facility will have 70 open-concept animal enclosures, said Mr Louis Ng, the executive director of the non-profit Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres). As far as possible, animals will not be caged. “We want to take them out of their cages for the rest of their lives,” he said.
The centre will recruit volunteers to help with the daily running of the facility, which will give them hands-on experience working with animals. Already, this year's Secondary 1 students from Admiralty Secondary School have pledged to spend time helping out there.
The centre will cost more than $700,000 to build. It will cost $300,000 to run it every year. Money will come in from grants from organisations such as the Lee Foundation, and from the revenue collected from the guided tours run at the centre.
Acres is also hoping to raise $1 million, beginning with a fund raiser on Nov 3 and 4 at The Atrium.
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