S’pore’s first cat museum opens on Purvis Street
Mr K Shanmugam toured the museum after launching it yesterday. Showing him around is founder Jessica Seet. Photo: Ooi Boon Keong
SINGAPORE — The nation’s first cat museum, Lion City Kitty, was officially opened by Law and Foreign Minister K Shanmugam yesterday.
Set up in collaboration with Cat Welfare Society, the three-storey museum is housed in a heritage shophouse on 8 Purvis Street to pay tribute to local cats that came here with the forefathers of Singapore.
The museum has also launched a campaign to rehome 50 cats by National Day, in celebration of SG50.
Founder Jessica Seet, 48, said she hopes the museum will help people get over their fear of cats through interaction with the furry felines.
“I grew up with dogs and I was very afraid of cats until a friend bought me my first cat. Since then, I have fallen in love with cats and I’ve been rescuing and adopting cats. I want to help people challenge their fears, and also help more cats to be rehomed,” she said.
The museum is open to the public only from Fridays to Sundays between 2pm and 9pm. The short operating hours are intended to allow the cats to catch up on their rest and prevent them from being stressed out by too much human contact.
At any one time, only 20 visitors would be allowed to enter the museum to prevent overcrowding. In addition, volunteers from the Cat Welfare Society will be at the museum on weekends to educate visitors on how they can play with the cats and take adoption-related queries.
Mr K Shanmugam said while there are many passionate cat lovers who want to adopt more than one cat, there is also a large number of Singaporeans who feel indifferent.
“We need a lot of education to help people to accept animals and not to see them as nuisances,” he said. “In Singapore, we live closely with one another, so we need to give and take and educate on both sides.”
The cat museum has also launched the SG50 Lion City Kitties Find A Home campaign to rehome 50 orphan cats by National Day.
The campaign began on Dec 9 last year and 12 cats have been adopted successfully.
Cat Welfare Society chief executive officer Joanne Ng said its monthly cat adoption drives rehome 100 cats annually. However, cats remain in cages during such adoption drives, which means there is limited interaction with the potential adopters.
“With the second storey of the museum set aside for visitors to see the cats in their most natural state and interact (with them), potential adopters will be able to choose the right cats for adoption. I have confidence that this will help more cats to be rehomed,” Ms Ng said.
