Taken from wildsingapore.com.

Releasing pets or captive animals into the wild is commonly thought to be an act of mercy which earns merit for the doer. Today, with growing knowledge of how native ecologies as well as the animals involved can suffer from these acts, Buddhist leaders are recognising that these practices should be avoided, and are seeking to share this with followers.

If you are interested in finding out more about the issues and question surrounding animal release, please drop by at the Buddha of Medical Welfare Society (11, Lorong 25 Geylang, Singapore 388293) this Sunday (10 April) from 2.00-3.30 pm. Caring for nature ultimately depends on the individual and I hope you will be persuaded to give some thought to how you can play a part.

Some information about pet releasing is also available here

Animal Release Initiative 2005

To all Nature & Animal lovers,

For this year's Vesak Day, a group of us have planned to conduct a few talks on the practice of releasing animals and volunteering for NParks to educate the public on the impact of animal release into the wild.

The objective is to make the public aware of the consequences of releasing animals into our environment advocated for alternative ways to show compassion towards animals & the nature and the responsible ownership of pets.

Part one - Talks & Dialogue sessions We have produced a powerpoint presentation for this talk both in English & Chinese, and will be holding a series of slidetalks with various organisations mainly targeting the religion groups; vegetarian; animals welfare & nature organisations.

Part 2 - Volunteering & Helpers Needed Last year, a joint effort together with NParks staff & rangers and many nature/animal-lovers alike volunteered to be stationed at various popular animals releasing sites at the central catchement reserve.

This time we hope to collaborate with them again, hopefully to help out at more sites not covered last time to prevent non-native animals from invading into our fragile environment & destroying our native species as a result.

We hope to get your fullest support on this issue & hope nature/animals -lovers would like to come forward to help us by volunteering for this project.

You can email me [email protected] for any clarifications; to check out our next slidetalk date or help by volunteering with us.

Btw, 10th April 2005 (Sunday) is our first talk held at Buddha of Medical Welfare Society (Address: 11, Lorong 25, Geylang, S(388293)) from 2.00 - 3.30pm.