Residents’ Committee members will pay monthly visits to a woman who kept 94 cats in a two-room flat at block 470B Fervale Link to “check on the situation, as well as her condition,” MP for the area Lam Pin Min said on Tuesday (Jun 27). Dr Lam, who said he learnt of the issue last week, added that grassroots organisations are helping the woman to clean up the flat. It is understood the woman in question lives in the flat with her mother. “We have referred her to the Family Service Centre and Social Service Office for further counselling and assistance,” the MP added.
The said unit reeks of a strong smell of urine and faeces hung in the air and two women were seen disposing of soiled furniture and other items at the void deck. Neighbours said an elderly woman and her daughter lived in the flat with the 94 cats. The two women moved in at the beginning of this year, although neighbours barely saw them, they said, adding that they were not aware that there were so many cats in the flat as well. One neighbour, who declined to be named, said: “The house has always been very smelly. I have never seen the cats come out, but the smell was still unbearable.” So bad it was that they could smell the stench from within their rooms, even when their doors were closed. “The few times we encountered the smell from the house, we suspected it was maybe the smell of a dead cat or that the elderly lady had passed away also,” another neighbour said.
Two neighbours first complained about the cat issue to the Housing and Development Board in May this year. HDB officers paid a visit to the woman and informed her that cats are not allowed in HDB flats, and that she would have to find new homes for them.
