SINGAPORE – It is a rainy Sunday afternoon in October and a lively menagerie has taken over a nondescript industrial office in Toa Payoh: five dogs, two rabbits, a cat and a white dove named Quinty.

Among them sit 15 humans, some with their hands on their furry and feathered friends, eyes closed in concentration as they try to focus on sending healing energy.

Leading the session is Mr Ezekiel Ong, a veterinary technician, reiki master and animal “communicator”. Dressed in a loose top with a mandarin collar and wearing a necklace with a cracker-size crystal, the tall, large man is one of Singapore’s top animal communicators.

Sparkling on his left wrist are two crystal bracelets, which he says are for protection and enhancing his energy, while silver bands adorn his ring fingers, adding to his aura of mystique.

The 36-year-old is teaching pet owners how to heal and communicate with their fur babies. Of the six women and one man who signed up, three had recently lost their pets. Half the class had previously hired Mr Ong to talk to their pets, while others found out about him through the internet.

For the second half of the day-long session, seven of Mr Ong’s former students joined the class, bringing their pets for the hands-on “healing” session.

“Some owners may have messages that they wish to pass to their pets. Others may be curious about their pet’s behaviour or preferences,” Mr Ong told The Straits Times.

“During an animal communication session, we can get all these messages and answers from the pet and pass them on to the pet owners.”

Anecdotal evidence suggests that with rising pet ownership, a growing number of fur parents are turning to animal communication to understand their pets’ inner worlds.

Singapore’s pet population has been steadily rising. According to data analytics firm Euromonitor International, there were an estimated 94,300 pet cats in 2023, up from 85,100 in 2019, and 126,100 pet dogs in 2023, compared with 123,600 in 2019.

It said the local pet care industry was worth US$162.5 million (S$222.4 million) in 2024, a nearly 50 per cent increase from the US$109.5 million in 2019.

“A fundamental driver remains the pet humanisation trend. Not only are more people treating their pets as family members, but within existing segments, there is a growing level of sophistication as well,” said Ms Sahiba Puri, a senior consultant at Euromonitor with a specialisation in pet care.

Singapore is also becoming more pet-inclusive, with more animal-friendly malls and changes on the regulatory front such as the lifting of the 34-year-old ban on cats in HDB flats, she noted.

Market researchers forecast that Singaporeans are likely to spend US$172.6 million on pet care in 2025. This will go towards services including grooming, behavioural training and medical care. But indulgent owners have also been splashing out on services like traditional Chinese medicine and energy healing.

Beneficial, but with caution

Modern animal communication is believed to have its origins in the US in the 1990s, where pet psychics went from the fringe to being part of the mainstream, said Mr Ong.

The practice then spread to Asia through expatriate communicators like his Hong Kong-based mentor Rosina Maria Arquati. He picked it up after attending one of her workshops in Singapore.

Mr Thomas Cheng, another Hong Kong-based communicator, has been in practice for 13 years, and now runs classes in the city, Macau and Taiwan. He trained in the US in 2008 under Ms Penelope Smith, a woman widely regarded as the “mother” of modern animal communication.

While the industry is unregulated worldwide and there is no official data on the number of communicators practising here, anecdotal evidence suggests close to 50 individuals offer such services.

They charge between $50 and $400 for services that range from helping owners connect with their dead pets to resolving behavioural issues. Each session lasts between 30 minutes and an hour.

Those who do this full-time can conduct up to five sessions a day. Several say they have to rest and clear their minds after each session.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, their services soared in popularity as people started acquiring pets to cope with the long hours at home.

Beyond sheer curiosity, some pet owners engage communicators to help them find closure when grieving a dead pet, or navigating the final stages of an animal’s life. Using non-verbal, telepathic exchanges, communicators claim to tap an intuitive connection – described as an exchange of energy, thoughts and feelings, and a meeting of minds.

However, in 2022, the Singapore Veterinary Association put out a position statement discouraging the use of communicators for diagnosing and treating sick animals. This came after feedback from its members about communicators interfering with medical treatment, sometimes causing delays.

The association noted that the practice is not evidence-based and lacks accreditation and licensing on a national level. It could also interfere with medical treatment, posing a threat to animal welfare and quality of life, and disrupt the vet-client-patient relationship.

While the association advises against relying on animal communicators for medical diagnosis or treatment, its president Teo Boon Han believes that as long as they do not harm the animal or delay necessary care, there is no reason to outlaw their services, he told ST.

In fact, some veterinarians have started recommending such services to clients whose pets are in palliative care or have recently died.

“I actually do see a role that some animal communicators can play, say, in alleviating grief, or grief management, counselling, providing closure and sometimes providing some hope… I think that’s quite important,” said Dr Teo, who also runs Canopy Veterinary Centre.

He cites the case of a client who struggled with grief after his dog died while he was overseas. As the man did not believe in conventional grief counselling, Dr Teo passed him the contact of an animal communicator.

“In such scenarios, it’s not about diagnosis and treatment any more. It’s more about closure and offering some relief in terms of coping with grief,” he said. “But this is rare.”

Most of his clients who use animal communicators also seek medical advice, especially when it comes to palliative care or behavioural issues.

Unlocking deeper connections

Back in the workshop, the air is thick with the scent of palo santo, a plant burnt as incense.

Niu Niu, a 16-year-old Jack Russell terrier with a massive tumour between her hind legs, barks incessantly. Sisters Saw Yan Yi, 21, and Saw Li Teng, 41, who are not Niu Niu’s owners, try to calm her down and send healing energy by holding their hands over her chakras or energy points.

The sisters have paid $599 each for the full-day course. Their pet dog Rooney died in 2024.

“We used an animal communicator to talk to Rooney before and after his death, so we started becoming more interested in communication and healing practices,” Ms Saw Yan Yi told ST.

Mr Ong goes from group to group, demonstrating and correcting techniques, and telling students to keep a tighter grip or focus on clearing their minds.

Participants trying to transfer healing energy to several animals, including 10-year-old rabbit Xiaobudian, during Mr Ezekiel Ong’s class in October 2024. PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES

While most pet owners use communicators to talk to their pets, some use them in the hope of locating lost animals.

When Ms Annabel Lim’s 18-year-old cat Lim Ah Mao slipped out of her mother’s Bukit Merah View home in 2021, the public relations professional was distraught.

“We were very worried because he’s so old and he’s never been outside, so we wouldn’t even know where to start looking,” she said.

Taking up a suggestion from friends, Ms Lim, 36, sought help from an animal communicator.

“The person said Ah Mao was wet and cold, but he could see the number eight. Did that mean he was on the eighth floor? At a block with the number eight?”

She rallied friends who helped comb blocks in a 2km radius, searching all the eighth floors, looking for units that had the number eight, and even checking entire buildings with eight in the block number. However, their efforts were in vain.

Three years later, Ms Lim has made peace with the fact that she would never see Ah Mao again.

“It’s all quite fantastical, the details this person could tell me. Anyway it was only $50, so I don’t feel too bad about it, but if it were a bit more, then I’ll be more upset,” she said.

Yet, for others like researcher Cinthia Phua, 31, using an animal communicator was helpful in better understanding and training her rescue dog Kai.

A seven-year-old mongrel who spent all his life in a shelter, Kai was extremely skittish and would bolt at any noise, whether it was from cars, people walking by, or even birds flying overhead.

“He was going to obedience classes, but I thought if I could have a better idea of what was causing his anxiety, then perhaps we could help him more efficiently,” Ms Phua said.

During the session, the communicator said that Kai was mirroring her anxiety, but he was also naturally more skittish due to genetics.

“It reminded me that your relationship with a pet is two-way, so I was mindful of being more calm and confident around him, which also helped calm him down,” she said. “Kai’s behavioural changes took a few sessions, but they really helped change the dynamics.”

Animal communicator Shar Ng, 41, works with rescues to solve their behavioural issues.

“Some of these dogs and cats may have gone through trauma or abuse, so there’s a lot of fear and distrust, and we need to try to help them trust humans again,” she said.

“When animals aren’t anti-social or have behavioural problems, it gives them a better chance of securing a forever home with adopters.”

She now volunteers with rescue group Keep Cats, working with felines about to be put up for adoption and those who are newly adopted.

Long journey to credibility

Mr Cheng said that although people have become more open to the idea of animal communication over the years, there are still a lot of misconceptions.

“For instance, sceptics always ask me why can’t I just walk into a lion’s cage and ask it not to eat me,” he said. “But the point is while I can talk to the lion, I can’t force the lion to do what it doesn’t want to do, and the same applies for house pets.”

He is supportive of having a standardised licensing or regulatory body, either at a regional or international level, and has been working with a group of professional animal communicators from the US and Europe to develop the basics of such a framework.

“It’s quite difficult because there are so many different ways of doing it. So how do you even begin to standardise? So we want to start at a very low bar.”

For Mr Ong, growing acceptance of the practice has meant increased regional opportunities. He now spends about a quarter of his time in Thailand, where his company has a fast-growing practice.

“People in Thailand have disposable income, and many of them don’t just have the dogs and cats popular in Singapore, but other bigger animals like horses and even elephants.

“There will always be sceptics out there, but what’s important is that the people who believe will find you, and we can keep building on that,” he said.

Asia News Network/The Straits Times