The AVA replied that it had conducted a thorough investigation on the facts of the case before deciding on the appropriate enforcement response. AVA’s findings through interviews, observations of the dog owners' behaviour and interaction with Butters, as well as veterinary examination of Butters revealed that the owners had no intention to harm Butters nor was there any lasting harm or injury inflicted. Nevertheless, AVA did not agree with the owners' method of disciplining Butters and AVA clearly warned them against such practices. AVA said it will follow up to check on the welfare of Butters and added that there is no necessity for SPCA to do the same.

The SPCA is very disappointed with this outcome and sincerely hopes that Butters' owners will learn from this experience, and refrain from such harsh methods of discipline in the future. We would also like to take this opportunity to advise pet owners who may be experiencing similar problems with their pets or who are keen to learn more about pet care.

As with all behavioural problems,the solution needs to address the following:

1. The cause of the problem. It's not enough to just stop the symptoms.
Why is the dog chewing e.g. Is it teething? Is it bored? Has the owner unintentionally enabled chewing, e.g. by leaving chewable objects within reach, and making a fuss when these are chewed? The latter reaction often becomes an unintentional reinforcer because if a dog is ignored when it's good, but it gets attention (even negative attention) when it misbehaves, then to the dog that has no alternative ways of interacting positively with the owner, even the negative attention is better than nothing.

2. Training for an acceptable alternative behaviour which can be reinforced positively which will make that behaviour more likely to be repeated.
If the dog is not permitted to chew on certain objects, one needs to provide alternative chew toys that the dog can, and must be encouraged to chew on. e.g. Kongs (available from pet accessory shops) stuffed with food treats, toys that hold water that can be frozen and provide cool relief for teething dogs. One would need to rotate these toys to keep them novel. In addition, owners should periodically play with the dog and the toys.

3. Managing the environment to reduce opportunities for the unwanted behaviour to be practised.
The best way to protect forbidden objects is to keep them out of reach of the dog. The choice of toys is also important: if you have a lot of soft fabrics that you don't want your dog to chew on, then don't give your dog plush toys.

4. Applying the above consistently and with patience.
Consistency: this is also key for the training to work. Everyone in the family needs to agree on what needs to be done and apply the plan consistently. It doesn't work if one member doesn't mind, and may even actively encourage the dog to play with a cushion, while another one scolds the dog for doing so.

It was early rising for volunteers and staff helping out at the SPCA Fun Run held on Sunday morning 27 June - by 5.45a.m. We started arriving at MacRitchie Reservoir car park area to unload prizes, water and other important items for the event ahead. A full moon shone brightly overhead providing more light than usual, and relief was expressed that we did not wake up to thunderstorms which were predicted for that day.

Marshalls were shown the route of the running path and assembled into their positions, as participants would soon be arriving. Photographers and our MC Michelle prepared themselves for the start of the run as they walked to the starting point across the reservoir.

1,2,3 GO on the whistle (blown by SPCA's executive officer, Deirdre Moss), marked the start of the Fun Run at 7a.m. and the contestants were off. 333 of the 525 registered participants took part.

Mr Barry Cupples the CEO Asia Pacific from Omnicom Media Group, who kindly donated the top prize (a HP Envy 15 Notebook computer) also came to join in the fun run and kindly officiated in presenting the prize to the grand winner Widi Susanto. SPCA Chairman Mary Soo did the honours in presenting the remainder of the prizes in the men's, women's and youth categories. Two of our youngest participants around 6 years old were delighted to receive a Build-A-Bear 'Jonas Bear'.

Time had been on our side, as the weather had changed by the end of the prize giving ceremony (and lucky draw) which had been brought forward due to threatening rain clouds. As soon as we had finished, the rain came down.

Over $15,000 (nett) was raised, and will go towards our animal welfare services. It was a great morning (in spite of the rain at the end), with fun runners, volunteers and staff coming together to do their part.

Here are the winners and their timings for this year's Fun Run:
Grand Winner & 1st - WIDI SUSANTO (17.28)
Mens 2nd - QIAN XIN JIAN (17.53)
Mens 3rd - PATAPHALANG JIRAPHONG (18.15)
Mens 4th - CHANANA PORNCHAI (19.46)

Ladies 1st - SAMANTHA TAYLOR (25.13)
Ladies 2nd - MELINDA MICHAEL (25.50)
Ladies 3rd - ALAYNE (26.38)
Ladies 4th - JOANNE WU (27.12)

Youth Boys 1st - ROY TAN CHER KING (29.34)
Youth Boys 2nd - RYAN TAN CHER WEI (30.52)
Youth Boys 3rd - BEN KERRIDGE (31.12)
Youth Boys 4th - CHAN MALCOM (32.19)

Youth Girls 1st - YASMIN FLETCHER (29.54)
Youth Girls 2nd - LILI COPPING (31.49)
Youth Girls 3rd - ELLIE DOWLING (35.47)
Youth Girls 4th - ANTHEA TAN (37.32)

The SPCA sincerely thanks the following for helping make our Fun Run a success:
Awesome Blossom
BigO Café & Restaurant
Bimba & Lola
Body Wellness Pte Ltd
Build-a-bear Workshop
DigiLab
Expat Living Publications Pte Ltd
Fairmont Singapore and Swissotel The Stamford
FairPrice (NTUC) Foundation
Florence - Art Retail Cards
KC & Watson Pte Ltd
Keppel Offshore & Marine
Memory of love
Nirwana Gardens
Omnicom Media Group
Pantry Magic Pro Quality Kitchen Tools
Passion Hair Salon
Pets Lovers Centre Pte Ltd
Pets Magazine Singapore
SPH Magazines Pte Ltd
Sundance Petio LLP
The Grand Hyatt Singapore
The Peepshow Machine
True Yoga

Volunteers from:
Keppel Offshore & Marine
SPCA
Young NTUC

MC:
Michelle Le Herissier

SPCA Fun Run T-shirt design:
Richard Copping

Photographers:
Frankie Lee
Lim Siew Koon
Lawrence Teo

"Operation No Release" is a special project piloted by National Parks Board. This year's "Operation No Release" would not have been possible without our fellow volunteers from SPCA , Singapore Polytechnic and Nature Trekker Singapore who are willing to sacrifice their precious weekend to make this special project a great success.

On a beautiful saturday (23 May 2010) early morning when most of us were still asleep, 12 volunteers from SPCA turned up punctually toreport for their duty as volunteer officials in the "Operation No Release" project. After a short briefing by Nature Trekker Singapore, the volunteers carried out their assignment with high enthusiasm.

All the volunteers who came forward to help were full of passion especially Mr Alvin Ng from SPCA who even motivated his other fellow volunteers to do better during the assignment. The volunteers while doing their duty also exchange pointers with each other as how to discourage the public from releasing of animals.

Although it was a long day for all the volunteers, everyone was glad that they spent their weekend for a good cause and went home with smiles!

Since 1931, the fourth of October has been a special day for animal lovers around the world as a day of solidarity to celebrate the special bond and respect between man and all creatures. Here in Singapore, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals celebrated World Animal Day by opening its gates at its current premises at Mount Vernon Road.

World Animal Day was an opportunity to build community awareness of the issues facing animal welfare and cruelty, providing opportunities for education and exploration of self awareness and, generally celebrate all animals.

Although it was a sunny and extremely hot day, we weren't complaining at all. It was a fun day with people constantly milling into the SPCA throughout the day. A key highlight at this year's event was a dog behaviour booth where Kang Nee, a certified dog obedience instructor helped pet owners sort out pet behaviour problems. SPCA's Information Officers were also present to answer any pet-care questions. Children had fun games, tattoo art, a magic show and our cat mascot, Max to entertain them. Tag, the adorable robot was a huge hit too with the crowd with its interactive nature and cute remarks promoting responsible pet ownership.

On a more serious note, the SPCA took the opportunity to express its objection to the importation a part of a group of 18 dolphins which were reportedly caught from the wild in the Solomon Islands for Resorts World Sentosa. The SPCA believes that the act of taking these animals from the wild (endangered or not) is at odds with spirit of Singapore's Wild Animals & Birds Act, which prohibits the taking of an animal from the wild. Specially designed T-shirts were on sale at priced at $7 to create awareness of the issue. Our "Say no to whale sharks in captivity" T-shirts were also on sale (BTW, it's not too late to get your t-shirts. They are still available at the SPCA.).

The SPCA would like to thank the following groups and individuals:
- Achieva
- Chris Liew (Mirage Event Management)
- Dinesh Pasrasuram
- Donna Daniels
- Feline Tattoo Company
- Hill's Science Diet
- Kang Nee
- Necessary Audio Visual Pte. Ltd
- Sivakunalen
- SMRT (staff stationed at the Bartley Station)
- Straits Times Razor TV
- The Grand Hyatt Hotel
- last but certainly not least, SPCA volunteers.

A big thank you and hugs to all of you for contributing to making Paws & Purrs at the SPCA a huge success.

Part I - Visitors get pawed

Part II - Take me home with you!

Part III - To the rescue

Part IV - I watch, I buy, I dispose

Education Executive Selina was at Ngee Ann Polytechnic on the 29 June while Poh Choo, our Education Officer headed another group of students at the island's oldest polytechnic, Singapore Poly on 3 July.

You have to hand it over to the students who have made all these possible. The NP team did a myriad of activities (printing their own animal-welfare themed t-shirts, inviting young musicians to play at the event, etc) and the SP students sold SPCA merchandise and their very own muffins.

We attracted a steady stream of students and lecturers who supported our cause. Bringing an SPCA adoptable animal always worked well by drawing people closer to know about our work and how compassion towards animals is truly priceless.

If you are interested to organise a similar event in your school, please drop us an email at educationpr@spca.org.sg.

Click on thumbnails below to see larger images.

Both events saw the team in full force spreading awareness of kindness to animals with engaging talks and on-stage quiz sessions, where participants won attractive SPCA souvenirs. It was great to see people coming to our booths to find out more about the SPCA and how to take care of their beloved pets. Although it was extremely hot and humid (Our Education Officer, Poh Choo got sunburnt), the awareness created at the two events and was well worth the heat and sweat the team had to endure.

If you are interested in being kept in the know of such events that are organised, please email updates@spca.org.sg.

Click on thumbnails below to see larger images.