The Ear-Notching Policy Stays

There has been a significant drop in the number of neutering claims for this month. We figured it could be due to three factors:

(1) The Chinese New Year break.

(2) The “graduation” of long-time applicants and the banning of those who were found to be dishonest and rude.

(3) The requirement of ear-notching for female animals.

We would like to comment on (3) above.

This requirement for ear-notching was to be in place even as far back as Day One but we did not do it then, partly because we really hoped the authorities were willing to spare ear-notched animals from their capture-and-kill policy, but this, sadly, failed to materialised.

Then, over the years, there had been enough cases of female animals being re-caught by well-intentioned rescuers, brought to the vet to be opened up again and only then was it discovered that the female animal had already been previously spayed.

We feel very strongly that female animals need not go through the agony and risk of being opened up again if only their ear had been notched during the first spay.

While it is true that some animals are to be adopted, but please bear in mind that adoption may not be for life, though we wish it would be. Animals, especially cats, can still escape or wander our of their dwelling place. Some adopted animals, sadly, are rehomed again or surrendered to shelters due to unfortunate circumstances.

Having considered all of the above, we reached the conclusion that for the sake of the female animal, we have to make ear-notching compulsory for our claims.

Now comes the various common reasons why some applicants are still applying to us without ear-notching the females (we will not be able to pay for these):

(a) “I did not know there was this policy. Last time, it wasn’t necessary.” Our comment: Policies change through time. The onus is on the applicant to read the policies before making an application. All changes to any of the policies are announced on the blog too. If applicants do not follow the blog, at least please read the policies before making an application.

(b) “I thought if I adopt, then there is no need to notch the ear?” – Our comment: We did not say anything of the sort.  So, making your own assumptions is not very wise and certainly cannot be a reason which we will accept.

We also noticed a significant drop in the number of claims for female animals since the ear-notching policy was implemented.

Some applicants have written to us to explain that they are not agreeable to having their female animals’ ears notched. We respect your decision on this, and at the same time, we hope you will respect ours too.

Thank you.

When we first implemented the compulsory V-notching, quite a number of applicants wrote to say that their vets do not do the V-notching due to it causing more bleeding than the flat tip. We have since accepted the flat tip too.

The whole purpose of marking the ear is to ensure we humans know that the female animal has already been spayed so that we don’t do it again.

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2019/02/20/the-ear-notching-policy-..

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AnimalCare is a registered society that promotes caregiving to street animals and helps in their neutering and medical needs. AnimalCare has a Medical Fund, Food Fund and Education Fund.

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