Over the past couple of days, the internet has been up in arms over the possible closure of The Cat Museum, Muses & Mansion in Purvis Street because (a) it involves cats and kittens, and (b) the government seems like the bad guy here.
A summary of the case: The Cat Museum made a sudden announcement that the dozens of cats up for adoption in its premises will be evicted by the end of September. The Ministry of National Development (MND) and the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) took issue with the museum’s founder Jessica Seet making unauthorized use of two floors of the building.
Basically, the third and fourth floor of the premise was indeed approved as a residential premise, and Seet does live on those two floors. But URA was displeased with the fact that those two floors were being used as a “cat shelter cum cat adoption centre”, which requires a different license. An appeal against the enforcement notice sent was rejected by Minister of National Development Lawrence Wong, who was explicitly named by Seet on multiple Facebook posts.
The enforcement notices seemed to have angered the building’s landlord, and Seet’s lease for the third and fourth floors of the premises will not be renewed. Hence the imminent eviction of the poor cats and kittens by the end of this month. But Seet is still allowed to rent the second floor of the building, meaning The Cat Museum itself will have its space severely downsized.
“We would like to clarify several points”
MND has been quick to shift public outrage away from it, clarifying in a statement that it is not the one responsible for the eviction of cats. Which is true — Seet was indeed allowed to continue living on those two floors and fostering her cats on her own. The cats are being kicked out due to the landlord’s decision, but that decision itself was claimed to have been due to MND’s enforcement notice.
Nonetheless, the ministry has stated that Seet illegally converted her residential unit into an unauthorized cat shelter and adoption centre. This, despite the fact that The Cat Museum, Muses and Mansion of Singapore has been running for over two years, and received blessings from Minister of Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam himself.
“I will not be broken by this setback”
Seet posted a response to MND’s new statement and clarified that the accusations it lobbed at her were unfair, claiming that she had done her “due diligence” in applying for the necessary licenses. According to her, there was no need to apply for a licence to foster cats in her home. She did not mention, however, if she applied for a licence to run a “cat shelter cum cat adoption centre” in her residences.
“From the start, my intentions were just to build a space for a community to come together and to give themselves a chance at the joys an animal can bring to a person’s life; to end the suffering of stray cats that we see everyday and to contribute towards efforts to build a kind and compassionate Singapore,” she wrote. “I will not be broken by this setback.”
Minister Wong quickly responded, stating that the URA still has to enforce the rules about “what can or cannot be done in a residential space”. Nonetheless, he’s ready to arrange a discussion on how they can work together and move forward.
While they’re ironing things out, feel free to support The Cat Museum by contributing to its fundraising campaign (over $13,000 donated as of writing) or visit the orphan cats and kittens there while you still can over the next three weekends.
Oh, and adopt them, of course.
