Following news of the case of Marine Parade Town Council (MPTC) capturing and abandoning two estate cats in Harbourfront, the cat feeder and carer accused of irresponsible handling of the collective of felines has spoken out to dispute the town council's version of events.

In case you're new to this story, two cats, Ben Ben and Leng Leng, were relocated by the town council, which ended with the tragic death of Ben Ben. Leng Leng is still nowhere to be found.

The Marine Terrace resident cat caregiver, Grace Tan, was pinpointed by MPTC as being the reason for more than 40 complaints from other residents between 2016 and this year — because she allegedly had 15 cats, allowed them to roam freely, and also were not responsible for them when they peed, pooped and meowed noisily at various times of the day and night.

Mothership spoke to Tan in a series of phone calls on Thursday to report her account of events, and found it differs slightly from MPTC's version:

Did Tan own 15 cats?

In its statement given to Mothership on Mar. 27, MPTC alleged that Tan owned "about 15" cats in total.

MPTC added that her cats, having been the subject of some 45 complaints since 2016, had been a nuisance to public hygiene because they defecated, urinated, shedded fur and caterwauled at common corridors, staircases and lift lobbies.

Speaking to Mothership in Mandarin, Tan said she only owned three cats — and Ben Ben and Leng Leng were not among these. The other 12, including Ben Ben and Leng Leng, are actually house cats, owned by other residents living in Tan's block.

Tan also explained that many of these other cats would wander around the block, moving between floors and in and out of her home as well.

Was Tan irresponsible in allowing her cats to roam freely and pee and poop all over the place?

Tan pointed out that she puts out cat litter for these cats to poop and pee in, although she would only leave it outside her 14th storey flat.

She said all three of her cats are litter-trained and would not poop or pee elsewhere. Beyond this, she would take the effort to clean up after any cats she happened to notice leaving poop or pee at the entrances of other houses on other floors.

This led to some of her neighbours assuming that she owned all the cats.

Tan explained that she went to all these additional measures to protect all of them — even though most did not belong to her — as she saw them as her "children", and did not want them to be captured by any authorities in a bid to respond to complaints.

Did Tan not try to get the other cat owners to be more responsible with their own cats?

Tan said she had spoken to the owners of the other cats about their behaviour, but it had failed to yield any change to the situation.

She said she herself informed the town council to speak to the owners about taking steps to rectify their cats' errant behaviour, but added that she would nonetheless continue treating the cats as her own.

Timeline of events involving Ben Ben & Leng Leng's disappearance

Turning to the specific topic of Ben Ben and Leng Leng's disappearance, Tan told Mothership she had only discovered the two cats had gone missing after returning from work on Friday, March 8.

Here's how events unfolded, according to Tan:

March 8, 2019: 

• Tan left for work, keeping the front door and window of her flat, which faces a corridor, closed. Although they did not belong to her, Ben Ben and Leng Leng were in her flat at the time.
• She also has a large cage placed in the corridor outside her flat, where she quarantines and houses sick cats.
• Tan returned to find the window open, and Ben Ben and Leng Leng, as well as the large cage, missing. She said her window was spoilt and the cats knew how to open it, so it is possible that the two felines found their own way out of her flat.
• Tan's husband visited the town council to ask if they knew the whereabouts of the cage and the two missing cats. It was then that the town council handed the cage back to him. But the staffer he spoke to denied taking the cats.

March 13, 2019 

• Tan raised the issue with Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, her MP, at a Meet-the-People Session after spending five days searching fruitlessly for Ben Ben and Leng Leng. ESM Goh told her he would investigate.

March 14, 2019 

• The town council officers admitted to capturing the cats and taking them away. But, she noted, their location was not revealed at this time. The town council officers then told Tan they would look into the matter.

March 16, 2019 

• Out of concern for the cats' well-being (it was now day eight of their being missing), Tan called the police because the town council had yet to follow-up with her.

March 17, 2019 

• The location the cats were deposited — Seah Im Food Centre at Harbourfront — was finally revealed to Tan by town council officers.

Cat Welfare Society: MPTC hired a pest control company to move cats to Harbourfront

The Cat Welfare Society (CWS), who was also referred to in MPTC's statement, shared their perspective regarding the case to Mothership on Wednesday night, saying MPTC's decision to move two cats from the estate was "very unfortunate".

Despite MPTC saying it was a member of their staff who captured and dropped off the felines in Harbourfront, a spokesperson for the society told Mothership they had actually hired a pest control company to do the deed.

She said CWS had spoken to Tan about keeping her cats within her flat and exercising more responsible ownership practices.

But turning to the issue of the town council moving the cats, she said relocation was not a recommended solution for the cats as it made them very vulnerable in their new and unfamiliar environment.

Here is CWS' statement in full:

"The Cat Welfare Society has been working with MPTC for many years to resolve cat-related feedback. In this case, the owner and caregiver was repeatedly advised by CWS to keep her cats within her apartment and exercise responsible cat ownership. It is very unfortunate that the MPTC staff unilaterally decided to relocate the two cats through a pest control company while mediation efforts were underway.

Relocation places cats in an unfamiliar environment making them extremely vulnerable. It is for this reason that CWS does not recommend relocation as a solution for cat-related issues.

We hope that Leng Leng is found soon and reunited with her owner and kept strictly indoors in the future. If you have seen Leng Leng in the Harbourfront / Seah Im hawker centre area, please write to [email protected]."

Here's what MPTC said:

 

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