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  email from Ashley Ng, 28 Apr 06
Animal Release Initiative 2006 (You have a choice)

Hi there,

What is your choice?

A Walk at the Park (Please read on!)

Just imagine.... we wake up to the sound of water and birds, and take a walk in a park in the morning without the constant noise of automobile or hassle of our daily working routine. We could be in a park where we could hear only beautiful music of nature; breathing wind, whispering grass, the humming of insects in the bloom and drumming chorus of cicada on the trees.

Then all of the sudden, you see death birds (both exotic and colorful) on the ground, littering smelly fishes on the water edge, overturned juvenile tortoises floating on the pond.

What happened?

Releasing Animals - Is it really Good or Bad?

1. Released animals which is usually domesticated / caged animals which cannot feed or fend themselves will suffer and die or starvation or become prey to other more aggressive predators.

2. Aggressive animals or alien (non-native) species such as red-eared slider or american bullfrog which is naturally feed on other local species / animals in the park threatening our native species. These prolific breeders can increase their populations uncontrollably, causing ecological imbalance.

3. Infected animals could transmit unwanted diseases eg. bird flu, reptilian fungus to our local species or even to human and will create an unstoppable epidemic that could wipe out our native wildlife. Death animals which decompose in our park and could degrade our water quality of our reservoir and create serious problems to our environment and society.

4. It is strictly against the law to release or liberate any animals into the Nature Reserves, public parks, reservoirs and many areas in Singapore. Our park is not a dumping ground for unwanted pets or releasing of animals.

Be a responsible citizen, Be a compassionate nature-lover and pet owner. Think twice about your action, Do your part to truly show wisdom. Make others aware about the importance of conserving nature and protecting our environment.

And, now a little footnote to this subject:-

We all may have seen or witness such incident in our daily life, but when it comes to volunteering your service in this cause, people will think twice about helping. Now, you have three choices (since you have read till here) :-

1. Delete this email
2. Forward and circulate this email to all your internet friends, blogsphere or forum so that more people are aware of the impact of releasing / introducing / abandoned animals.
3. Stand up and be counted. Be a Volunteer!.

This year is the third year that we are helping NParks / PUB as Volunteers in this "Operation Animal-Release" project during Vesak Day. We need alot of helpers and volunteers during this 3 days period. And we are facing serious manpower and logistics problems especially during this GE and holidays period.

There will be a briefing session on 4th May 2006 (Thursday) evening, 6.30pm at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for all.

Please feel free to email me about the details of this project and the schedule. I do hope to hear from you. We need you.

Many thanks.

Yours faithfully, Ashley Ng
ashleyhua@gmail.com

Related Links
Releasing animals: good or bad? a pamphlet used during efforts to educate people NOT to release animals particularly during Vesak Day.

Be kind to animals to mark Vesak Day. Remember what the Buddha teaches
Letter from Dr Tan Chek Wee The Straits Times Forum Online 26 Apr 05

Siva blogs on habitatnews about the issue

Animal release in nature reserves and reservoirs
Radio Singapore International 12 May 05

WISE and COMPASSIONATE ACTIONS How YOU can do your part to protect wildlife and conserve nature areas Suggestions by Nature Society (Singapore) 2004 on the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery website

Releasing Life with Wisdom on the Buddisht News in Brief website

email from Ashley 3 May 06
Dear friends,

We are recruiting volunteers / helpers for Vesak Day long weekend (3 days), the dates of the operation are 12, 13 and 14th May.

You can choose to help us from either 9am -12pm or from 3-6pm.

However, till date, there is only 12 helpers and we need at least 30 - 50 volunteers to cover these 12 sites for 3 days for this year.

PLEASE HELP!! Those who volunteer will be issued with Nparks Volunteer Pass and tomorrow evening we will be conducting briefing session for volunteers on how to approach and educate the public.

Those who wish to participate but couldn't make it to this Thursday evening briefing session, you are still welcome to join us. Just email me and i will fix you another briefing session on a later date.
With metta, Ash ashleyhua@gmail.com
links
Budak blogs about the issue
Is this any way to treat a member of the family? 'Freeing' a domesticated pet in the wild condemns it to a painful death Letter to Today, 24 May 05
Fewer cases of animals being released into nature reserves By Ching Yi / Wong Siew Ying Channel NewsAsia, 21 May 05
Vesak Day: Free animals? Adopt a pet instead Letters to the Straits Times Forum Page, 17 May 05
Public advised not to release animals into nature reserves, reservoirs Channel NewsAsia, 10 Apr 05
When acts of mercy can kill by Lin Zhaowei Straits Times, 11 May 05
Taming the pet industry by Patricia Yap patricia@newstoday.com.sg Today Online 4 May 05
Global Invasive Species Database of the IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group: introduction to the issue, top 100 worst invasive species and more.
Invasive species weblog updated reports around the world on the impact of alien introduced species.
Invasive species on the Conservation Science Institute: an introduction to this global problem with brief descriptions of major species.
Related articles on Singapore: animal release into our wild places impact, issues, efforts, discussions
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