Appeal to stop cats roadkill in Skyway gathers dust

A YEAR ago, an online petition was started on behalf of cats that were mysteriously turning up on Skyway ramps in Parañaque City only to become roadkill minutes later.

The petitioner, Ime Buela, theorized that motorists left their unwanted cats or kittens to die on the elevated ramps, which she dubbed as the “killing fields of cats”.

A target of 5,000 digital signatures were set to formalize the petition for Skyway O&M Corp. (SOMCO) to take action. But after a good start, the whole undertaking somewhat lost steam and only scraped 2,592 signatures to date.

Ime made the online appeal after she had seen one too many flattened cats on the Skyway every morning on her way to work.

“What on earth were these cats doing on an elevated expressway? They just dropped from the sky?,” she asked.

Ime observed that the SOMCO people are quick to remove the carcass of dead cats. However, without taking any action to prevent the brutal killing of cats and to punish the culprits, the management of the multi-billion pesos infrastructure is practically sweeping the issue, in this case the cats, under the rug.

“These criminals should not think they can forever do this with impunity. They should be held liable for the crime they committed...It's time the Skyway management stop turning a blind eye on this disgusting practice,” Ime said in her message over at Change.org.

She suggested to the Skyway management to penalize motorists caught on CCTV cameras intentionally abandoning cats to be killed by fast vehicles. SOMCO should also report the violations to the Animal Welfare Act to legitimate animal welfare groups so appropriate cased could be filed, Ime added.

“For some people maybe these are just cats. But for all responsible pet owners and pet lovers, these cats are family,” Ime said.

Although 12 months have passed, it's some consolation that the petition is still open for those who want to sign up and throw in their support for the cause. To sign, please visit change.org.  -- MetroPets

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