1. Research Education Project 2011
Design for Change
Final Report
Project Title:
“PROTECT YOUR PETS”
Group Members:
Chen Yupeng – 2F (3)
Janson Chew – 2F (4)
Edmil Chue – 2F (7)
Nigel Nicholas Chew – 2F (18)
Jeriel Ng – 2Q (19)
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2. CONTENTS
Page
Cover Page/ Project Title………………………………………………………………………….…1
Why this Design for Change Journey? ………………………………………………………….…3
Our Project – PROTECT YOUR PETS!……………...………………………………………….…3
Background Research …………………………………………………………………………….…5
Preparation for Action Week .………………………………………………………………….…7-8
Protect Your Pets Game ………………………………………………………………………….…9
Action Week ………….………………………………………………………………………….…10
Reflections ………………….…………………………………………………………………….…11
Bibliography …………….………………………………………………………………………….12
Appendix
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3. Why this DFC journey?
For our group’s Research Education project his year, we have decided to take up the
Design for Change challenge – which is a challenge that motivate us to get creative and
think of ways and ideas to solve problems in our environment that bothers us.
Initially, our group had a dilemma on what project to embark on, as there was a great
variety of choices to select from. However, we decided to take up this challenge as we found
it the most meaningful among all of the other project that were available – we could actually
get a hands-on experience of trying to change the world in a better way, and most
importantly, with our own ideas. And we can say that we had never regretted the decision we
had made from the start.
Our project – PROTECT YOUR PETS!
For our project this year, our group have decided to focus on the worrying issue of
pet abandonment and abuse, such as for dogs, cats, rabbits, etc. We have noticed that in
recent years, the number of abandoned pets had increased, and this is a worrying issue.
Some people may take this problem slightly – perhaps because they are unaware that
Singapore’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) would put the
abandoned pets to sleep (which means they are killed) within a couple of weeks if they are
not adopted as the SPCA compound is not very big, and it does not have the capability to
hold a very large number of pets. This issue of unawareness and killing of the pet all lead to
a single focus – pet abandonment and abuse, and it bothers us a lot to know that innocent
pets are abandoned every day by their owners who are supposed to love and care for them,
and most of them taken in by SPCA would not have a happy ending.
From one of the articles we have read from The Straits Times, we realise that the
general public lacks awareness on animal abuse and abandonment. It states that more and
more dog owners now think nothing of leaving their pet in the car for extended periods and
they believe that it is fine when a window is left partially down. However, according to Ms
Deirdre Moss, an executive officer from A Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
(SPCA), dogs can die from heatstroke in cars, especially in Singapore where the weather is
hot. Also, cases of number of alleged cruelty to animals increase by 15 per cent from the
previous year. Mr Mohd Aswat found and rescued 9 abandoned rabbit locked in rusty cages
at a void deck in Tampines this year, though animal welfare associations warned the public
not to buy rabbits for good luck during the year of rabbit, their warning has definitely been
fallen on deaf ears. All of the above evidences prove that the public needs to be further
educated on their knowledge on animal abuse and abandonment.
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4. Hence, the objective of our Research Education project this year aims to cut down
pet abandonment and abuse rates in Singapore by targeting and raising awareness in our
key audience – primary school students. We have chosen this target audience primarily
because of a few reasons. Firstly, it is because they are young, and we need to educate
them about important facts about animal abuse and abandonment which they might
misunderstand or completely do not know about. Secondly, these students, perhaps due to
their misunderstanding, lack of knowledge or ignorance, might end up hurting their pets or
other animals – perhaps ending in a situation where they abandon or abuse their own pets.
Thirdly, these students might buy animals on impulse or by peer pressure – they might see
that their friends have pets and they decide to own one too without considering
consequences and sacrifices for caring for and loving a pet. Lastly, and most importantly, we
should educate these young primary school students, as if they are the future generation of
Singapore – if we can manage to successfully teach them about the crimes of pet
abandonment and abuse, we can not only cut down the pet abandonment and abuse rates
in the near future, but also in the distant future, as this precious knowledge would be passed
on from their generation to the next, thus, making them the key to solve this worrying issue
in the long run.
In order to raise this awareness among the children, we have decide to design a
board game, of which would teach them about pet abandonment, abuse, neglect, the
necessities for caring for and loving a pet, and the problems that one would have to
encounter if he decides to own one. Through our game, we hope to etch the important
message of the bad consequences of pet abandonment and abuse in their mind both
consciously and subconsciously. Our service would start perhaps in September, stretching a
tentative 5 days or so. This period of time would be quintessential to help change and
improve the Singapore’s current alarming problem of pet abandonment and abuse. We
would perhaps follow Mrs Ng Poh Choo, one of the two education officers of SPCA, to reach
out to these students by going to their schools and educate them through our board game.
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5. Background Research
In this project, the issue of animal abandonment and abuse was involved in this
project. Therefore, we researched on how to effectively curb the problem of animal
abandonment and abuse. Cases on animal abuse could be for the purpose of obtaining their
fur, using animals for entertainment, or perhaps even forcing animals against their own will.
And animal abandonment is extremely common, with stray dogs and cats roaming all over
the place, sometimes with a tag, but without an owner. After research, our group decided to
come up with a game to educate young children on the serious issue on animal abuse and
abandonment, so that they would be responsible for their actions against animals, and
become a good ambassador for animal rights in the future.
In the case of animal abandonment and abuse, animals living in the wild would be
affected, as hunters would lay traps all over the place to try and capture them, like steel-
jawed traps, which can be fatal. Farmers would also electrocute foxes anally to obtain their
fur, and that is downright immoral. Animal abandonment affects everyone in short, as stray
pets would be left to roam in the wild. They would not be used to their new life, as they were
fed regularly and did not have an independent life. This would then cause them to be
helpless in the wild, and they would eventually die. Even though various independent pet
organizations may take in stray pets, they would be put to sleep if they are not adopted
within a few weeks.
Currently, the situation of pet abandonment is not as serious yet, as owners only
choose to abandon their pets, or set animals free during festivals or if their pets grow old and
inactive. However, pet owners have to understand that their pets have their own rights too.
So therefore, if we educate the young beforehand, the success rate of curbing pet
abandonment should be quite high. However, for pet abuse, it is quite a serious problem.
Wild animals are killed incessantly merely for their fur, and their figures total up to above 50
million. This is a great concern, as hunters may also unknowingly kill endangered species of
animals, causing imbalance in nature. Animals are also used for entertainment more
commonly nowadays, and this is against their own will. Such practices should be stopped,
and by instilling that mindset into children, they would most likely not abuse animals when
they grow up.
Some solutions we came up with to solve our problem of animal abandonment were going to
one of our primary schools to give a talk to the Primary 5s and 6s and creating a game,
which we were considering to make into a board game, card game or online game, possibly
on social networking sites like Facebook. We came up with these solutions mainly with the
mentality that our solution had to be able to reach out to a large group of Primary 5 to 6
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6. students and educate them about animal abandonment. In the end, we chose to make a
card game since this was an efficient way to captivate the young pre-teens, and teach them
about animal abandonment. Also, this can reach out to a huge group of people, since we
can teach them about animal abandonment without actually being there physically, so they
are basically teaching themselves. Also, it is cost effective and simple, not needing much
effort from our target audience to understand or for us to carry out.
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7. Preparation for Action Week
Our methodology to gather information for our project, in general was via a survey of
50 primary 5 and 6 students, and an interview conducted with the Education Officer of
Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
Before embarking on the project proper, we created a timeline to map out our journey
we were about to take. (Refer to appendix 6) We decided then that our group would split into
two teams. Edmil and Nigel would be in charge of the interview section; while Janson,
Yupeng and Jeriel would be in charge of the survey. Although we did not stick rigidly to the
deadlines we set for ourselves in our timeline due to exams and personal schedules, we did
keep to the idea of splitting the work into two groups.
Firstly, 3 members conducted a survey on 50 primary 5 and 6 students. The objective
of the survey was to find out what our target audience knows, or misunderstands about pet
abandonment and abuse, and pet care. The survey included questions testing the
respondents’ knowledge of pet care (how to properly take care of a pet) and also questions
testing the respondents’ knowledge about the issues of pet abandonment and abuse. After
much vetting through of our survey to ensure that the questions were clear and easily-
understood, our surveys were sent out to 50 random Primary 5 and 6 students from different
primary schools. (Refer to survey: appendix 1) After a week, the results were collected back
and collated. (Refer to appendix 2) A survey analysis was then done in order to clearly see
the areas in which the students lacked knowledge. (Refer to appendix 3) After analysing
what pet issues need to be addressed to our target audience more, we then started on
creating our game to specially cater to these issues.
An interview was also conducted concurrently by the other 2 members of our group.
We managed to contact and request Mrs Ng Poh Choo, the education officer of the SPCA
Singapore, to be our interviewee. She kindly agreed to our request, and the interview was
conducted on the 7th of July in Raffles Institution. Our interview included questions firstly
about the SPCA and what it does. The second category of questions was concerning the
issue of abandonment and abuse of animals in Singapore. The last category of questions
was concerning the public awareness of the Abandonment and Abuse of Animals, with the
entire interview consisting of 12 questions. (Refer to appendix 4) We managed to gain a lot
of information and statistics about SPCA and the issue of abandonment and abuse from this
interview. We also gained an expert’s view on these issues, and the reasons and causes of
the issues. (Refer to appendix 5 for interview results) The information gathered from the
interview was used in our game to educate and spread awareness among our target
audience about these issues, as seen in the explanation of our game later.
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8. After finishing and analysing the results for the survey and interview, Edmil and Nigel
began to brainstorm on ideas for our game. We had to consider the interesting and useful
scenarios and information that Mrs Ng provided us in our interview. After a week of tweaking
our ideas to ensure that the game would be educational and fun, we came up with the first
version of our game.
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9. PROTECT YOUR PETS game
For one week, we brainstormed about our game. Our game was to be a card game,
and its purpose was to educate children about pet care and also raise awareness on issues
of pet abandonment and abuse. Finally after a week, we came up with our first ‘version’ of
our game. We made a simple prototype and did a test run with our group members by
playing the prototype. After this, we then realised problems and tweaked certain parts of the
game. We are currently in the last phase of tweaking our game, before making the final
product.
We were very fortunate to have Mrs Ng, who is very dedicated in helping us with this
project. We have been working closely with Mrs Ng from the SPCA, and she helps comment
and gives us suggestions on improving our game. We hope that our game can be used a
learning tool for the SPCA once it is finished, to be implemented in different Primary Schools
to educate children about animals.
After the test-round using our prototype the revised version of the game is as follows:
(Refer to appendix 7 for complete game guidelines)
 The game is about owning and taking care of pets (dogs, cats and rabbits)
using money.
 Money is earned only through answering animal and pet-related questions
correctly in ‘question cards’
 With the money, the player has to take care of his pet well by buying
resources like food and water for his pet.
 Depending on the players’ luck good or bad scenarios appear when they pick
up ‘chance cards. These scenarios are our tools that help get the
abandonment and abuse message across.
 The aim of the game is to be able to manage well and take care properly of 3
pets for at least 3 turns.
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10. Action Week
At the point of writing, our group has not carried out our action week yet. Our project
requires much research and time to come up with a creative and educational game. We
have gathered all necessary information, and we have completed and finalised the animal
‘question cards’ for the game. (Refer to appendix 8.1-8.6) These questions were first
approved and amended by Mrs Ng from the SPCA, before we finalised them to put into the
final game. At present, we are in the process of writing different scenarios for our ‘chance’
cards. These would teach the players more about properly taking care of pets and raise
awareness of animal abandonment and abuse in Singapore at the same time. We hope to
have our final and amended ‘version’ of our game to be approved by Mrs Ng in a week’s
time. Upon her approval, we shall complete the construction of the final game product.
We plan to make at least 2 copies of our product (excluding our prototype). Once our
product is completed, we will carry out our Action Week. Mrs Ng has kindly agreed to use
our game as a teaching device when she visits Primary Schools or children visit the SPCA,
to teach them about good pet care and let them learn more about abandonment and abuse
of animals. Another option for our Action Week is that our group follows Mrs Ng to the
Primary Schools (if possible) to introduce our game to the students there. We would also be
able to observe first hand how the students respond to playing the game.
After our Action Week, we hope to be able to continue expanding on our project. We
are very dedicated and believe strongly in our aim of raising awareness of good pet care,
abandonment and abuse of animals in Singapore among young children. Therefore, we
hope to improve on our game once again based on the response gained from our Action
Week. If possible, we will propose our game to the SPCA for it to be used by them as a
permanent teaching device. If we actually are able to have a widespread number of students
learning via our game, we also have thought of creating a corresponding Facebook page.
This Facebook page would give the players extra information, and also update them with
new and fresh ‘question cards’ to use in the games.
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11. Reflections
Although we have yet to carry out the action week, at this point in time, our group has
progressed quite far and we hope to achieve our targets of successfully educating the
students about the severe problems of pet abandonment and abuse.
In our project, we faced a number of problems. Firstly, we faced the problem of
managing our time properly, as many of us are very busy with either homework or family
matters throughout the week, especially during the weekends. As a result, we started to lag
behind our timeline, and after the June holidays, we were just starting to conduct surveys
and interviews.
Another problem which we faced and slowed us down was the ineffective
communication amongst the members of the group, and this added on to our unfinished
tasks and dragged us even further behind the deadlines of the timeline.
The last problem that we faced was developing a game simple enough for the
primary 5 and 6 students to understand, yet still be able to allow them to learn more about
animal abandonment. It was difficult making the game flawless and be able to run smoothly,
because there were some points where people got confused of what they were supposed to
do, and also when we ran out of in-game money as well as some of the cards. We also had
a limited number of question cards, and when the game dragged on, some of these
questions were asked again. We also met up to play the game and make a few trial runs and
changed the game here and there so that the game would be able to be as flawless as
possible. There were unforeseen flaws in the game, but fortunately we noticed and corrected
them during our trial runs.
Fortunately, we cleared up these problems by talking to each other and reminding
each other to complete tasks more often. Our group practised great teamwork and hence,
we managed to catch up with our present assignments, though there can be more
improvements in the areas of time management and member communication.
Through this project, we have gained valuable knowledge about pet abandonment,
abuse and neglect. These are all serious problems in Singapore and this experience from
the Design for Change challenge is one that would always be close to our hearts.
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12. Acknowledgements
Mr Leon Lai – For his support and guidance for our project
Mrs Ng Poh Choo – For helping in our project tremendously and guiding us
Ms Tan Liling – For helping us find Mrs Ng’s contact
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