Release Our Kids AVS
In late May 2023, a potential client/adopter Anthony Goh (faked identity used by AVS officer Isaac Tan) approached us through chats and videos for 2 weeks. We offered him an imported cat but he said the overseas cats were from unknown sources so we then showed him our home-breed cats for adoption purposes through video/ pictures. A video call was made and Issac Tan secretly recorded the entire call without our consent.
On 15 June 2023, 5 officers from the AVS investigation team came to our home and subsequently seized our 6 legally imported, 1 homebred ragdolls (3 mother cats just finished nursing in recovery and 1 sterilised male in mental distress whose ownership still belongs to DreamAngel in NZ) and 2 handphones while accusing us for an offense from Animal & Birds Act, which is
“Maintain a farm without a valid farm license” where
“A farm is defined as any land or premises, whether enclosed by fencing or not, used for the keeping, rearing, breeding or boarding of animals or birds for commercial purposes. “
Given that
1st. All of our homebred kittens rehomed were under adoption agreements signed by both adopting and rehoming families willingly, none of them were and will be sold at any time.
2nd. The price listed is not only for the adoption fee of the kittens, but also the admission fees, everything included in the Zingdolls dowry, presents after pickup, and also the lifetime consultation fees.
3rd. There is no Act defining the exact amount of adoption fees for homebred cats allowed at the time of writing up.
4th. All our home-breed kittens are raised with 200% love in the most ethical ways possible so NO sign of animal abuse was found even by the sudden inspection on that seizure day.
However, AVS officers insisted to seize our pets after we clearly said they are for ADOPTION, insisted cats/kittens were MUST for commercial purposes, and requested a cat farm license for us. Cat Farm license has no licensing condition available on their own website. AVS officers said that we need to approach TAL (under them) to bid on a place and use that premise for the pet farm license application. Then we visited that place and made our decision that we would never put our newborns/breeding mothers/any cats into such an environment on any occasion for ethical reasons. For the public curious about TAL, just go search and we will leave the commentary freedom to the public.
It is world-widely accepted that pet farms and pet shops should be banned for ethical reasons where Joshua Teoh said to us all imported cats must be kept in pet shops and never should be brought back home, which he claimed to be part of the licensing conditions for the pet shop license but there was no such clause unfortunately. He also claimed that there was a cat farm currently operating in TAL which was not found later after our site visit. Isaac Tan said the legally imported cats are from unknown sources which implies that AVS self-recognised that they fail to inspect the ethical sources of the imported cats, which might be from backyard or kitten farms. It is reasonably suspected that as long as those unethical breeding not happening on this island, those imported kittens would be marked as legal and AVS is aware and comfortable about it. All this evidence made us doubt that AVS officers do not know about their own licensing conditions and process, and the meaning of animal welfare, but tried to accuse people of breaching the non-existent licensing conditions under the cover of animal welfare.
On the day of the seizure, Joshua Teoh said to us when we were simply asking about their living conditions after the seizure: “Why would I bother to tell you” which traumatized us with nightmares of our cats being put in small cages they never experienced. During the investigation, they rejected our requests to see our cats taken away from us (all in healthy condition verified by AQC vets and said by AVS officers) and refused to disclose their living conditions despite us relentlessly saying how much we were worried about them. Even after we told them that one of our younger kittens passed away after they visited, we were truly devastated to not be able to see them all in good shape. They also not allowed any of our friends to visit our cats as they were saying cats were under investigation as well. Later we happened to know the location of our cats, AQC. At AQC, officers said they only provided kibbles and litter boxes, no scratching pads, no grooming services(brushing/nail clippings), no playing sessions, no wet food, and no freeze-dried. This is NOT defined as “Looked After” to us as Desmond Lua mentioned in his reply to our lawyer, this is only meant to keep them alive in our understanding. We, therefore, delivered wet food, freeze-dried, and some scratch pads&blankets&toys at our own cost to make them feel more comfortable with AQC, and we really appreciate the AQC officers coordinating with us.
In the meantime, we have had to give the contact information of our adopting families to AVS. Then the AVS officer, Desmond Lua started to contact all of them and our vets relentlessly. He showed up at their workplace without notice, recorded the statement with his misleading questions, and even warned people by sending them a letter if they did not want to cooperate. What’s more absurd is that he attempted to allude the adopting family to give up on the cats to them which is against all the welfare they claim! Every charge is evidenced and has made us and adopting families lost all trust in this “authority” and be devastated to leave our kids in the hand of those people.
As AVS investigation officers claimed this is under the power of investigation from the Animal and Birds Act, which was originally legislated for Animal Welfare,
ANIMALS AND BIRDS ACT 1965:
"An Act for preventing the introduction into, and the spreading within, Singapore of diseases of animals, birds, or fish; for the control of the movement of animals, birds, or fish into, within, and from Singapore; for the prevention of cruelty to animals, birds or fish; for measures pertaining to the general welfare and improvement of animals, birds or fish in Singapore and for purposes incidental thereto."
Turning out they are most likely using it by taking animals away from their most familiar and comfortable home, resulting in a lack of their normal high-standard care, nutrient, and mental well-being simply just for their own investigation purposes. We have reasons to believe that AVS officers are trying all the means to commit us to an offense but they have not yet made a conclusion after 1 month of approaching all our adopters and our vet. Given last year’s composition letter situation, where our pet shop license will only be processed after paying the composition for breaching the farm license when no form of money transaction was made at that time, still offense, we have reasons to believe that the seizure of our 7 cats is indeed their strategy to force us to commit the offense by paying the fine as the condition of returning our furkids. We are truly worried about the well-being of our family members as they are not being looked after as well as our standards!
We are trying to bring our furkids home from AVS who claims to be the authority that cares nothing more about animal welfare, using legal means, MP complaints, MND, and PMO complaints as our PRIORITY. We understand the power of investigating and AVS can investigate as much as they want! But my kids are INNOCENT and they desperately need HELP! Do drop us msg If anyone can help us get our kids back!
Updated: 12 July 2023
On July 14, 2023, a notice of the suspension of our pet shop license was issued.
Subsequently, the AVS issued an "Isolation Order" for all our cats residing on our premises. It basically says our cats are allegedly "diseased" because not from AVS-approved sources. In response, on July 22, 2023, we promptly took all of our cats to the veterinarian to obtain health certificates for each of them.
Following this, we contacted Mr. Desmond and requested the lifting of the isolation order on our cats. On July 27, 2023, Mr. Desmond visited our place, but instead of lifting the isolation, he issued a directive for microchipping.
In compliance with this directive, we brought in 5 kittens from litter F for microchipping and promptly submitted the required documentation to AVS, once again requesting the removal of the isolation orders.
However, on August 8, 2023, during an arranged inspection, AVS personnel entered our premises and informed us that they intended to seize all our cats, including fragile 12-week-old kittens. Feeling deceived by AVS, we immediately contacted the police. Notably, during a statement session in June, Mr. Prem had assured us that the kittens would not be seized.
When the police arrived, Mr. Prem claimed there had been a "change in the case" and rescinded the decision to seize our kittens. He also mentioned an upcoming hearing but failed to provide any details regarding the hearing date or reference number. This entire episode was witnessed by police officers and recorded on video.
We were left deeply concerned by AVS's actions and considered pursuing a judicial review with our lawyer. However, we hesitated even when we finished drafting the letter, as our primary concern was the well-being of our cats currently held by AVS. Another reason we decided not to proceed with the judicial review was that the MND had approved our appeal request on August 7. This appeal required both AVS and us to provide correspondence with solid evidence. We would like to see what cards they have in their pockets and how they want to play.
At this juncture, we are in the second round of the MND appeal, and the situation has become increasingly intriguing. Hang on there babies, we believe anyone with a good heart and dignity would make the right judgment, especially ministers from MND.
In a puzzling turn of events, AVS filed a police report on August 2, alleging that we had contacted our adopters to deceive AVS, supposedly obstructing their operations. Of course, the accusation was untrue and we called our adopters simply because many of them thought AVS was a scam in the beginning. It's important to note that this report was filed before Mr. Prem claimed there was a "change in the case" that led to the decision to seize our kittens on Aug 8. The filing of this report raised questions about AVS's actions.
What's even more perplexing is that the police never contacted us for a statement recording session, despite at least two of our adopters providing statements in September. If we are correct in our belief that judicial fairness should prevail and the police should maintain neutrality, we should have been asked to provide statements as well. This raises concerns about the fairness and legality of the investigative process for both AVS and SPF.
Updated: 23 Oct 2023
Disclaimer:
Zingdolls Cattery is no longer an AVS-licensed pet shop due to ethical concerns, it simply a cattery operating with our love towards ragdolls solely for cat show purposes as our hobby. All homebred kittens who do not reach our standards for show/breed will leave our home sterilised and under adoption agreements to Approved Adopters Only.
Due to the very limited number of kittens available for adoption annually, we sometimes provide agency services to help ragdoll lovers in Singapore to get overseas pedigreed kittens from our collaborating cattery DreamAngel Ragdolls from New Zealand under the Pet Shop License issued to Miaodiaology Pte. Ltd. Those kittens are also sterilised by NZ Dream Angel before flying to Singapore.