Zones of Contagion: The Singapore Body Politic and the Body of the Street-Cat

There are an estimated sixty to eighty thousand street-cats in the city-state of Singapore.3 One of the most visible icons of urban animal life, cats frequent open-air hawker centres, school canteens, the edges of construction sites, and the

ground-floor areas of government Housing Development Board (HDB) blocks, in which 85 per cent of the human population reside and where they come into contact with highly organised and vocal networks of cat-feeders. One reason why human-cat relations are such a common and contested feature of Singapore public space is because keeping cats in HDB flats is banned. Small dogs are permitted, but cats are deemed too noisy and impossible to maintain inside a flat.