PUPPYN LOVE: Mr Joel Foo with his huskies: (from left) Emmy, Yuki and Oscar. He used to fear dogs as achild. – PHOTO: JOEL FOO

FOR Mr Joel Foo, offering to look after Yuki, an unwanted three-year-old husky, not only helped him overcome his childhood fear of dogs, but also saw him becoming the owner of not one, but three dogs.

The 44-year-old entrepreneur said yestarday: “I actually hated dogs, but I offered to look after Yuki while her previous owner tried to find someone to adopt her. (In the end,) I adopted her because we got along very well.”

However, not all dogs are as fortunate, based on figures from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

A total of 987 alleged cases of abuse and neglect were reported to the SPCA between July last year and June this year, a 15 percent rise from a year ago.

Ms Corrine Fong 47, executive director of the SPCA, attributed the rise to the “growing affluence” of pet owners here.

She said: “More people here now have more money to buy pets, and, as the number of pet owners rise, so do the number of cases of neglect adn abandonment.”

She was speaking on the sidelines of a World Animal Day carnival at East Coast Park organised by the SPCA yesterday.

“The most common reasons…are thet (the owners) have no time to look after the pet, that the maid has gone home, or that they are downsizing their house,” she added.

Ms Fong pointed out that owners needed to be responsible when choosing pets.

“People like to buy exotic pets, like chow chows or uskies, which are not ideally suited to Singapore’s climate. They require specail attention if they are to live in Singapore,” she said.

Source: Affluence behind rise in cases of pet abuse; World animal Day Carnival at East Coast Park organised by the SPCA; My Paper by Shaun Tan 26 Sep 2011