Plea to Minister Tan Chuan-Jin re Francis Lee

The below is a letter from a concerned Singaporean to the Minister of State, Tan Chuan-Jin:

 “Dear Sir – you may or may not have been aware of the flurry of activity going on between AVA and volunteers who are concerned by the plight of stray dogs in Singapore. A lot of the issues at stake have been set out in various posts on AVA’s Facebook page. The current state of affairs is very unsatisfactory as AVA has chosen to address most of the issues with cut and paste answers which fail to address the problem. This has only served to agitate both the volunteers and members of the public. One such issue is AVA’s continued use of Francis Lee, a private contractor known for his unconventional and cruel methods of catching strays. Francis Lee made it to the news when he was fined by AVA for causing, albeit unintentionally (according to AVA) the death of a stray dog.

 SPCA had recommended that Francis be prosecuted, but AVA chose to impose a fine on the ground that the incident was of an ‘accidental’ nature. Although Francis’ services were thereafter suspended, AVA has, since June 2011 resumed using him. When questioned by concerned members of the public as well as the various welfare groups, AVA’s justification for using Francis was based on the fact that they have reviewed and reassessed his methods and found them to be acceptable.

 Unfortunately, this is not a view shared by many, especially feeders and witnesses who have encountered Francis or seen him in action. The attached post is self-explanatory. Many of us would like to work with the AVA, not against it. But this task is rendered impossible when AVA appears to back-paddle on its word, engages in activities which make the public lose trust in them and is non-transparent and high-handed in the way it carries out its affairs.”