Showing Up for the Unseen

Contractor by day, animal rescuer by night, Gabriel Cai (right) is a long-time volunteer with ACRES, a local wildlife charity helmed by CEO Kalaivanan Balakrishnan (left). Here, the duo gently moves a snapping turtle from its old, small enclosure to bigger and better living quarters in ACRES’ expanded sanctuary.

Gabriel Cai was 14 when he first became fascinated by reptiles — drawn to creatures that most people instinctively shied away from. That curiosity stayed with him. Over the next two decades, he would spend his Saturday nights climbing trees in the dark to rescue stranded eagles, coaxing pythons out of drains, and driving across Singapore for animals that most people would rather not think about. He has been volunteering with the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) since 2010, and he has no plans to stop.

“Everybody knows the goal here,” says Gabriel, 41. “What you do or what you did before, I don’t really care. We have the same goal, which is just to do something for the animals.”

While most of Singapore sleeps, Gabriel is often on the road responding to wildlife rescue calls. A long-time ACRES volunteer, he spends every Saturday night on rescue duty, with busy shifts sometimes stretching until 5am.

An electrical contractor by trade and arborist in his spare time, Gabriel has spent every Saturday night on ACRES’ wildlife rescue shifts for the past 15 years. Reptiles first, because “people won’t wait”. “Snakes have a bad reputation — people will try to kill them first,” he said wistfully. Then the birds, the pick-ups, the long drives back to ACRES at dawn. Over the years, he has added rope access certification, arboriculture training, and occupational first aid to his skillset, all in service of getting animals out safely. On Sunday mornings, after his night shift, he heads to the sanctuary to clear trees, contributing in whatever way he can. “In the end, I just want to provide a good, safe working environment — for the staff and for the animals.”

Behind every rescue is a community that has quietly built itself around the belief that every animal, however unglamorous, deserves care. Last year, ACRES’ rescue hotline received 16,459 calls and its team rescued 3,838 animals. Keeping that operation running — staff salaries, animal feed, veterinary care and logistics — costs a significant amount each month.

“A lot of donors will fund projects or food for the animals, but not salaries. This is where Tote Board’s EFR funding is really helpful — it helps us remain sustainable and be stable so we can focus on critical projects,” says ACRES CEO Kalaivanan Balakrishnan.

Tote Board’s Enhanced Fundraising Programme provides matching support for fundraising projects that support charitable causes in the community.

One of those critical projects enabled by the EFR has been years in the making. Since 2009, the ACRES Wildlife Rescue Centre has operated on just a fraction of its land, after ground contamination left most of the site unusable. Animals were housed in cramped indoor enclosures and rehabilitation was constrained. The team kept going anyway, rescuing, rebuilding, making do. In 2024, approval for the expansion came. With support from the EFR grant, new enclosures are being built, giving rescued wildlife more space to recover and a better chance of returning to the wild.

“It’s literally a dream come true for me,” says Kalai. “It can definitely house more animals, but more crucially, it can improve the way we care for our current animals and how we rehabilitate them.”

For Gabriel, his dream is showing up for the animals - climbing a tree, clearing a bush, fixing a light - week after week.

Kalai and Gabriel at work on the grounds of ACRES’ expanded wildlife sanctuary. Beyond wildlife rescue, Gabriel helps to maintain the premises, from laying electrical and water lines to clearing trees—skills that prove invaluable as ACRES develops its new sanctuary.