Helping The Animals

Love animals and the environment and want to get involved in some way?

On a recent university holiday, Georgia Bisset spent a couple of weeks working at animal welfare group ACRES. During her time, she interviewed ANBARASI BOOPAL (“Anbu”) to draw attention to the great work the organisation does, to help get the message out there and hopefully to get some readers interested in volunteering or donating.

How did ACRES get started?

The first seeds of ACRES were sown when a baby chimpanzee named Ramba ran towards Singaporean Louis Ng and showed him her lips to check, as they were bleeding. She’d been punished for not sitting still while being trained for a photography session. Once Louis’s eyes were opened to how baby chimpanzees were permanently taken from their mothers for photos, and were sometimes harshly punished for not “behaving”, Louis became determined to end this cruelty, stop the chimp photography and reunite Ramba and two other baby chimpanzees, Poko and Gombe, with their mothers.

Louis realised that there was no group in Singapore tackling such issues, so he decided the only way forward to help Ramba, Poko and Gombe was to form a new animal protection group. In 2001, together with nine other Singaporeans who cared to make a difference, he founded ACRES, the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society.

What does ACRES do?

ACRES is driven by our concern for animals. We speak up for animals by giving them a voice, and we carry out research projects on the use of animals in various fields. Research findings are then used to educate the public to promote active community involvement in the animal protection movement, as well as strive towards synergistic partnerships with authorities and related parties.