The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) thanks Mr Darren Chan Keng Leong for his feedback ("Double efforts to better care for abandoned animals"; Forum Online, Feb 10).

The ability of our staff to handle inquiries from the public is very important to us and this is why we take feedback very seriously and are constantly seeking ways to improve.

We assure Mr Chan that animals (whether community or pet) received by SPCA are examined by a veterinarian and quarantined prior to being put up for adoption, with every effort made to foster out very young animals and those with treatable ailments.

Healthy community animals are released back into the environment.

Unfortunately, there are times when an animal may have suffered near-fatal injuries that even treatment and care cannot alleviate.

In such instances, putting down the animal is the humane option to prevent further suffering.

Euthanasia is not a decision we make lightly.

In a bid to save more lives, we have increased the number of foster homes and adoption efforts, in addition to counselling pet owners at the point of surrender and providing an online rehoming notice board for existing pet owners.

Bambino is a local cat rescued in March last year after falling from a height.

The impact of the fall severely injured his jaw and SPCA provided dedicated veterinary care and treatment. Bambino was adopted last month after much effort was made to find him a home.

The perception of the SPCA culling animals is a misconception, as Mr Chan has pointed out.

The SPCA has always advocated the sterilisation of community animals as the most effective method for community animal population control, having facilitated almost 2,000 sterilisations of community cats and dogs in the last financial year.

We agree with Mr Chan that more needs to be done to improve and expand the work we do, to raise the standard of animal welfare in Singapore.

We invite like-minded and passionate people to join us in our role as animal protector by volunteering with us, or making contributions to support our animal shelter, inspectorate and animal rescue services, foster care programme, sterilisation, and free clinic consultation for community animals.

Jaipal Singh Gill (Dr)

Acting Executive Director

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals