Cat owner pleads guilty to animal cruelty after killing neighbour’s pet
TODAY File Photo
SINGAPORE — Bearing a grudge against his neighbour after a quarrel, he took his anger out on the man’s pet cat, slashing it to death with a carving knife when he saw it mating with his own cat.
Tan Pwee Sin, 67, who has a track record of committing violent crimes — including culpable homicide — pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Aug 29) to one count of animal cruelty and one count of criminal intimidation.
He also admitted to one count of dishonest retention of stolen property, committed on a separate occasion.
Two other charges of using vulgarities on two nurses at the Institute of Mental Health will be taken into consideration in sentencing Tan, who will be back in court on Sept 19.
The court heard that the quarrel between the two men started after Tan fed the pet cat of his neighbour Muhammad Bakhtiyar Jaffar, who became upset because the male Russian Blue cat, Vamp, was not eating the “high quality cat food” it was supposed to consume.
On Nov 2 last year, Tan bought a chef’s carving knife that had a 36cm blade and placed it by his main door — “in case (Bakhtiyar) came to his flat”.
About two months later one night, he saw Vamp mating with one of his cats and chased it away, but the mating happened again outside his home at around midnight.
Tan got “very angry”, reached for his knife and slashed Vamp in the abdomen. Shortly after, another neighbour in the public housing block returned home to find a blood trail from the seventh to the eighth floor where Tan lived, and saw Vamp on the ground, with its intestines exposed. A police report was then made.
An autopsy report revealed that the cat had abdominal tears, inflammation in multiple organs, significant inflammation and obstruction in its airways, and vascular deterioration.
The court also heard that after that incident, in March this year, Tan intimidated Bakhtiyar’s 11-year-old nephew when the boy asked Tan not to play with his cat.
He threatened the boy by saying that he is a “murderer” and that he would “cut (his) neck and throw (him) downstairs from the building”.
Describing Tan as an “extremely violent” and “very angry” man, the prosecution asked that he be assessed to see if he is suitable for preventive detention, stressing the need to protect the public and deter him from further violence.
Preventive detention is a jail option for hard-core criminals considered too recalcitrant for reformation. It is typically imposed when the offender is deemed to be such a menace to society that he ought to be imprisoned for a substantial period of time.
He or she will have to serve the full jail term with no remission for good behaviour.
Tan has had a history of past convictions dating back to 1967, including voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons, armed robbery and carrying offensive weapons.
In 1996, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for culpable homicide, but was granted remission and released in 2010.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Yang Ziliang pointed out that Tan is quick to anger and “deficient in his capacity to regulate his emotions”, and “there is strong propensity for him to offend yet again if unchecked”.
Defence lawyer Sean Tseng’s request for Tan to be assessed for corrective training — a more rehabilitative sentence — was denied by District Judge Eddy Tham, who agreed with the prosecution that Tan has a “strong propensity towards violence” and often resorts to it during conflict.
For committing animal cruelty, Tan could be jailed up to 18 months and/or fined S$15,000.
For criminal intimidation with a death threat, he could be jailed up to 10 years and/or fined.
