March 7, 2006
Man jailed 3 months for torturing kitten till its eye
protruded
David Hooi Yin Weng, 42, pleaded guilty to torturing a female
black-and-white kitten at his rented flat in Block 544, Bedok North
Street 3 on Nov 14 last year.
Police found the cat with its left eye protruding and blood stains
on the nostrils when they visited his flat on the evening of Nov
14.
The 1 1/2-month-old kitten had to be put to sleep for its
injuries.
Pleading for leniency, Hooi said he made a 'mistake' and would not
do it again.
He could have been fined up to $10,000 or jailed for up to 12
months under the Animals and Birds Act.
It was cat lover Ngiam Mui Wah, 46, who tipped off the police that
Hooi might be ill-treating cats.
Ms Ngiam, who is self-employed, went to court to testify as a
prosecution witness but did not have to do so as Hooi pleaded
guilty to the offence.
She told The Straits Times yesterday that Hooi had been seen
torturing cats before.
Ms Ngiam, who is part of a group feeding stray cats in the Bedok
area, said a retired school teacher told her last June that she had
seen a man strangle a kitten at Block 545 while she was taking a
morning walk in the park.
Police were called in but could not find the dead cat.
Ms Ngiam then contacted the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals (SPCA) and also made a police report.
Two months later, Ms Ngiam saw a man trying to catch a cat at the
void deck of Block 543.
She immediately called the retired teacher who came and identified
him as the same person who had killed the kitten last June.
Hooi left before the police came, but residents said he lived on
the 11th floor of Block 544.
Ms Ngiam said his neighbours told them they had seen dead cats
along the common corridor two to three days earlier.
Ms Ngiam, who has a pet cat, said some neighbours had advised her
to let Hooi do what he liked with the stray cats and not to be a
busybody.
'I don't agree. If everybody were to think that way, there will be
a lot of problems not only to cats but also to human beings as
well,' she said.
Ms Deirdre Moss, executive officer of the SPCA, said two cats were
picked up from Hooi's flat. One was put up for adoption while the
other was the badly injured kitten that had to be put to
sleep.
'Although SPCA is not legally empowered to act in cruelty cases,
the SPCA will investigate all alleged reports of animal abuse and
assist the authorities as in this case,' she said.
Between 2000 and last year, at least five people were jailed for
abusing cats and causing their deaths.
[email protected]
someday that B itch is gonna to get it
too.
