I recently visited The Animal Lodge at 59 Sungei Tengah Road to assess if it was a suitable place to board my pets.

While the location is nice and on high ground, the facility is very much lacking in other areas.

Several of the commercially run outfits there told me they were unhappy with the whole concept and design, but felt they had little choice but to take up a spot there.

Several of them mentioned that the buildings are unsuitable for breeding or lodging pets as they had small air ventilation windows, which without air-conditioning, are inadequate for housing pets. This is exacerbated by the low ceiling height of the enclosures. I was told many of the businesses renting space there have had to install exhaust fans to suck hot air out of the building.

Another complaint was the lack of green spaces to walk dogs, and proper dog runs.

There is a lack of trees to provide shade. There are also no proper bathing places for pets.

In between buildings, there are fenced spaces which I assume are for dog runs, but these are cemented and it would be cruel to leave dogs there on hot days.

I also noticed some other fenced areas on the periphery of the buildings under some short trees, but they were too short and narrow to be proper dog runs.

Whoever designed the runs should visit the ones in West Coast, Sembawang Park and Yishun.

Given that the National Parks Board is looking at ways to improve pet care in Singapore (NParks to review, tighten standards in pet industry, Aug 18), The Animal Lodge is a good place to start.

Ron Ho