SINGAPORE, April 25 — A 31-year-old man was sentenced to 20 days’ jail for neglecting 43 cats in a vacant flat in the largest animal cruelty prosecution in terms of pet numbers by the National Parks Board (NParks) to date.
Muhammad Danial Sukirman pleaded guilty to 10 charges of causing unnecessary pain and suffering to an animal as a pet owner yesterday.
Another 34 charges under the Animal and Birds Act relating to 33 other cats and one charge of failing to comply with a written notice requiring his attendance before an officer from the Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS) were taken into consideration for sentencing.
Charge sheets stated that Danial had caused “unnecessary pain and suffering” to the 43 cats by failing to provide adequate food and water and leaving them unattended between August and November 2021.
NParks Prosecutors Ron Goh and Farisha Asharaff informed the court that the case involved the largest number of abandoned pets in a prosecution under the section of the Animal and Birds Act pertaining to animal cruelty thus far.
TODAY understands that it is the first jail sentence imposed for a conviction under Section 42(1)(d) of the Act, pertaining to neglect by pet owners.
“It is a case that has set its own precedent,” said Ms Farisha, who noted that the 43 cats were kept in a small, confined space without adequate food and water.
The prosecution argued that a fine would be “far too lenient” and sought a jail term for Danial, given his “deliberate” conduct, as he knew that the cats were breeding “out of control” yet managed the living conditions of the cats poorly.
In mitigation, Danial, who was unrepresented, told the court that he regretted his actions and is the sole breadwinner who would have to return to work as soon as he was released.
District Judge Lorraine Ho agreed with the prosecution that the health hazard from the neglected cats in the flat could have been spread to the other persons in the neighbourhood and Danial’s actions warranted a jail sentence.
41 live cats, 2 dead cats and some skeletal remains were found in the vacant flat.
What happened
On Nov 5, 2021, AVS, which is a cluster of NParks, was alerted by the police on public feedback regarding a foul smell coming from a public housing flat.
Police officers who attended to the scene saw that the main gate and door to the flat was locked and investigations revealed that the flat’s occupant had not returned home for about a month.
The authorities were unsuccessful in contacting the flat owner, and due to the strong stench and cats’ caterwauling emanating from the flat, the police engaged a locksmith to gain access to the flat and found more than 30 cats and skeletal remains inside.
Later that evening, NParks officers were able to contact Danial and made arrangements to inspect his flat three days later.
On Nov 8 at around 11am, NParks conducted a joint inspection with a Housing and Development Board (HDB) officer together with Danial.
Danial admitted to owning the 41 live cats, two dead cats and skeletal remains that were found in the vacant flat and surrendered them to AVS.
According to Danial, he and his wife moved into the flat to stay with his mother-in-law around January 2016. He claimed that they had only three cats initially, and he took over ownership of the cats when his mother-in-law died.
As the cats were not sterilised, they started to breed uncontrollably till the man “lost count” of the number of cats staying in his house, said the prosecutors.
A vet who examined the 41 surviving cats opined that all of them had experienced “pain and suffering”, as they did not have access to a regularly available source of clean water.
“The only source of water was from a tap dripping onto the toilet floor of the unit, the toilet floor was noted to be pooling with dirty brown water, likely from faecal contamination,” Farisha added.
Drinking from a contaminated water source facilitates the transmission of parasites and predisposes the cats to diseases.
During the inspection, there was no food available for the cats. Investigations revealed that Danial fed the cats once a week from a big bag of dry kibble, which would have been “highly stressful” for the cats who would need to fight and compete for food at a single feeding point.
Six cats were found to have superficial wounds and healed scars during examination, which were “highly likely” to have been sustained in fights with other cats, the prosecutor added.
The two deceased cats were found to be “exceedingly thin” and emaciated, and had liver lesions, indicating that they have been in “negative energy balance” for a while and had a recent decrease in food intake, said the prosecutor.
Of the other cats, nine were noted to have been infested with fleas, one cat was found to have adult lice on its coat, and 19 cats were observed to have alopecia, three of which tested positive for ringworm.
The cats were subject to “severely poor living conditions” in a “filthy and unsanitary” environment, with faecal material, decomposing carcasses and skeletal remains of cats noted throughout the flat.
With the windows in the flat being closed and poor ventilation, the heavy soiling of the environment would have led to build-up of high concentrations of ammonia, posing health hazards both to cats and humans in the vicinity.
Case background
In July 2021, Danial applied and got a new HDB flat in Yishun and was given six months to vacate his old one.
The family moved to the Yishun flat after receiving the keys in August that year, and Danial admitted to not making arrangements to rehome the cats, leaving them in the vacant flat.
“He also did not visit the said flat regularly nor to provide the cats with food and water on a daily basis due to his long working hours and poor management of finances, (being) in heavy debt,” said NParks Prosecutor Farisha.
She added that Danial claimed to visit the cats to feed them once a week and had last visited the flat in early November 2021, a few days before being contacted by NParks.
He locked the gate and door and left the flat less than five minutes after pouring dried cat food on the floor, and further admitted to not checking in on the cats or cleaning up the flat, being aware that the flat was unhygienic and filled with feline faecal matter.
For each charge of causing unnecessary pain or suffering to a pet, Danial could have been jailed for up to 18 months, faced a fine of up to S$15,000 (RM52,622) or received both punishments. — TODAY
