The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) announced on Tuesday that it will implement the Stray Cat Sterilisation Programme on June 1.
The programme, a new collaboration between SPCA and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), aims to further reduce the number of stray cats in Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates.
It was first launched by the AVA and the Cat Welfare Society last year.
Under the stray cat sterilisation programme, a community cat can be sterilised and microchipped for free at a participating veterinary clinic. Community cat caregivers will have to register with the SPCA clinic to book appointments beforehand.
The costs of sterilisation and microchipping will be funded by the AVA and SPCA equally.
SPCA added that community cats living in places such as industrial and private housing estates, or farms and outer fringe areas, can be sterilised for a nominal sum of $25 each.
The SPCA will also train its volunteers and mediators to work with community feeders in the areas of encouraging sterilisation, responsible feeding and public education.
The stray cat sterilisation programme will replace SPCA's existing sterilisation voucher scheme which came into effect in 1991. Under the scheme, the SPCA has distributed over 33,000 free sterilisation vouchers to the public and other animal welfare groups, which amounted to a total of $1.2 million borne by the SPCA.
For more information on the stray cat sterilisation programme, visithttp://www.spca.org.sg/services_sterilisation.asp