Singapore jails man for leaving 43 cats without food or water in a floor full of feces

Danial had caused “unnecessary pain and suffering” to the 43 cats by failing to provide them with adequate food and water and leaving them unattended between August and November 2021 at an apartment in Ang Mo Kio, according to court documents.

NParks prosecutors Ron Goh and Farisha Asharaff told the court that the case involved the largest number of abandoned pets yet in a prosecution under the section of the Animals and Birds Act relating to animal cruelty.

TODAY understands it is the first jail sentence imposed for a conviction under Section 42(1)(d) of the Act, relating to negligence by pet owners.

Farisha, who noted that the 43 cats were kept in a small, confined space without adequate food and water, said: “It is a case that has set its own precedent.”

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The prosecution argued that a fine would be “too lenient” and asked for a prison sentence for Danial, given his “deliberate” conduct, as he knew the cats were breeding “out of control” but mismanaged the cats’ living conditions. . .

In mitigation, Danial, who had no legal representation, told the court that he regretted his actions and that he is the sole breadwinner of the family who would have to return to work as soon as he was released.

District Judge Lorraine Ho agreed with the prosecution that the health danger from the cats abandoned in the flat could have spread to others in the neighborhood and Danial’s actions justified a jail sentence.

On November 5, 2021, police alerted AVS, which is a NParks group, to public feedback regarding a foul odor coming from a public housing unit.

Police officers responding to the scene saw that the front door and the door to the apartment were locked and investigators discovered that the occupant of the apartment had not returned home for approximately a month.

The authorities were unable to contact the owner of the apartment, and due to the strong stench and the cats’ meowing coming from the apartment, the police hired a locksmith to access the apartment and found more than 30 cats and skeletal remains inside. .

That night, NParks officers were able to contact Danial and made arrangements to inspect his apartment three days later.

On November 8, at around 11am, NParks carried out a joint inspection with a Housing and Development Board (HDB) officer along with Danial.

Danial admitted to owning the 41 live cats, two dead cats and skeletal remains found in the empty flat and turned them over to AVS.

Danial said he and his wife moved into the apartment to stay with his mother-in-law around January 2016. He stated that they initially only had three cats and that he assumed ownership of the cats when his mother-in-law died. .

Because the cats were not sterilized, they began breeding uncontrollably until she “lost count” of the number of cats in her home, prosecutors said.

A veterinarian who examined the 41 surviving cats found that they had all experienced “pain and suffering” because they did not have access to a regularly available source of clean water.

Farisha said: “The only source of water was a dripping faucet on the unit’s bathroom floor; “It was observed that dirty brown water was accumulating on the bathroom floor, probably due to fecal contamination.”

Drinking from a contaminated water source facilitates the transmission of parasites and predisposes cats to diseases.

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During the inspection, no food was found available for the cats. Investigations revealed that Danial fed the cats once a week a large bag of dry kibble, which would have been “very stressful” for the cats, who would have to fight and compete for food at a single feeding point.

During examination, six cats were found to have superficial wounds and healed scars, which were “highly likely” to have been suffered in fights with other cats, prosecutors said.

The two deceased cats were found to be “extremely thin” and emaciated, and had liver lesions, indicating that they had been in a “negative energy balance” for some time and had had a recent decrease in food intake, the department added. prosecution.

Of the other cats, nine were noted to be infested with fleas, one had adult lice in its fur, and 19 cats had alopecia, three of which tested positive for ringworm. Alopecia for felines is a condition in which there is loss of hair on the cat’s body due to an underlying disease.

The cats were subjected to “extremely poor living conditions” in a “dirty and unsanitary” environment, with fecal material, decomposing corpses and skeletal remains of cats throughout the apartment.

With the apartment windows closed and poor ventilation, the heavy dirt in the environment would have caused an accumulation of high concentrations of ammonia, which would represent a danger to the health of both the cats and the people in the surrounding area.

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In July 2021, Danial applied and got a new HDB apartment in Yishun and was given six months to vacate the old one.

The family moved into Yishun’s apartment after receiving the keys in August that year, and Danial admitted to failing to make arrangements to rehome the cats, leaving them in the empty apartment.

“He also did not visit the said apartment regularly or provide food and water to the cats daily due to his long work hours and poor management of finances, (being) heavily in debt,” said prosecutor Farisha.

It added that Danial had claimed to visit the cats to feed them once a week and had last visited the apartment in early November 2021, a few days before being contacted by NParks.

He closed the gate and door and left the apartment less than five minutes after pouring dry cat food on the floor, and further admitted that he did not check on the cats or clean the apartment, knowing that the apartment was unsanitary and dirty. full of feline feces. affair.

For each count of causing unnecessary pain or suffering to a pet, he could have been jailed for up to 18 months or faced a fine of up to S$15,000 (US$11,031), or both.