It is heartening to know that most people treat animal abuse with contempt, as evident from the plethora letters written in to the Straits Times Forum. If you have been like my friend, who is oblivious to anything beyond the scope of his medical text, a man was recently convicted of toturing a six-week-old kitten by rubbing its eyes and beating its head. Apparently, the injuries were so severe that the kitten had to be put to sleep (link, isn’t it sad that Singaporeans have to resort to India Times after the commercialisation of ST Online).

Some, like Dawn, Director of Operations, Cat Welfare Society, noted that CWS is pleased with the sentence meted out to this sick man while others like Ms Tini Abdul thinks that the sentence is way too light. I think we’ve made some progress since 1997, when it took CJ Yong Pung How to overrule a magistrate court verdict and hand down a one-month jail term on a 31-year-old who beat his neighbour’s dog to death. The day where we are able to treat animal abuse with the same severity as human abuse is one where we can truly call ourselves a civilised society.

So most people disagree with animal abuse, but just what are animals? Are they just cute and fluffy domesticated creatures like cats and dogs? I don’t know why people get all uptight and disgusted about people eating dog and cat meat but are fine with feasting on chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, sharks and what not. It seemed as if some animals are made to be eaten while others are not. Why the distinction, I can’t comprehend.

Xiaxue wrote an entry a while back on how her mum “prepares” a crab for cooking. Most of us would have been familiar with this gruesome process, but try it on a cat and you are labelled an animal abuser and could be subjected to the wrath of our law. I vividly recall my first cooking lesson in Home Econs class back in Secondary 1 where we had to cut a piece of chicken meat. I was pretty traumatised by the whole event – having to hold a piece of slimey raw meat and slice it up into pieces. I thought all mothers must be pretty brave to be able to endure all that and cook for us. Perhaps, it was partly why I gave meat up 5 years later.

A few years ago, I sold flags for SPCA for my college’s compulsory community service. At the end of the 3-hour community service, we returned our donation cans back to SPCA volunteers who happened to be feasting on a cocktail of chicken, pork and sotongs. Ironically, SPCA’s motto was “Be Kind to Animals”. In my brief meeting with Dawn from CWS, I learnt that she gave up meat as well after realising how inane it sounds to call yourself an animal lover and feed on them (ok, that’s animal lover in another sense). The point is, most of us are already inured to the sufferings of most animals. A handful of them are lucky enough to be classified as non-edible while most of them just end up on our dinner tables.

Why the double standard, I can’t understand.

Singaporean educators sure have a tough job. I mean, they’ve got to conduct spot checks on handphones and endure through gruesome sex flicks of their students (she made it to Wikipedia?!), scruntinize their students’ blogs to see if they’re being flamed online (and send them for public flogging after that), conjure impromptu and bombastic tirades on sly, crafty old rats who refuse to hand up assignments (and tearing up the the subpar ones after that, of course).

I mean, can you imagine having to do all that all the time while trying to fulfill your main job as a teacher? And just when you thought that’s all our poor educators have to do, The New Paper ran a featured story (“Punishment strips students of dignity”, Saturday, March 4, 06) today on teachers who ordered school girls to take off their coloured bras (and attend the rest of the school day without any) as a punishment for wearing a non-white bra!

According to the school’s principal, the rationale was because they “were concerned with the development of good values in our youth” and “[The school] would like their students to develop a sense of decorum and modesty”!

Noble aspirations, dear Principal. I’m sure all our school girls will become decorous fair ladies under your insightful and wise leadership. I fully agree that protruding nipples through translucent white blouses are much less distracting than coloured bras. The male teachers and students will also be able to concentrate better in classes with your policy. Thank you very much for protecting our young and naive children’s modesty.

Hey, I also read that the bras that were confisticated were never returned to these students. Some schools even have their prefects stash those evil bras away in a box at the prefects’ room. I wonder what do they do with those bras? Auction them off over eBay or just for perfuming the room with the “aroma” of the owners’ perspiration? Whatever it is, I’m very sure my children will be in safe hands with a group of ever-vigilant and hardworking teachers in future.

The report noted that it is not identifying the school as “they do not want to embarass the girls any further”. I am not quite sure about that – about embarassing the girls or the school, that is. I mean, if I’m a girl at the school, I’ll be damn happy to let everyone (and MOE) know about my wonderful school and principal. Must reward our educators for their efforts in inculcating decorum and modesty in our young children, mah!