Eight weeks’ jail for taxi driver who threw stray cat down rubbish chute
The dead cat was found at a rubbish chute at Ang Mo Kio Ave 4. Photo: AVA
SINGAPORE — Furious that a stray cat had wandered into his flat and soiled his bed, a 59-year-old taxi driver slammed the animal on the floor twice before tossing it down a rubbish chute.
The cat died from a blow to its head, according to investigations, which also showed bleeding in its brain and lungs.
On Wednesday (Oct 4), Ow Ah Lon, 59, was sentenced to eight weeks’ jail for wantonly causing unnecessary suffering to the cat.
The court was told that Ow had been looking for the cat for three days before he killed it.
On the morning of March 12 this year, he returned home from driving the night shift to find a cat’s paw print in his toilet.
The following day, his mattress was soiled by a cat’s faeces and urine.
It was on March 14 that Ow came face to face with the cat he thought was responsible for dirtying his place. When he returned home from work that day, he heard a cat meowing in his Ang Mo Kio flat. After searching for one hour, he spotted a cat running out from TV console in the living room to hide under a metal rack in his kitchen.
Ow managed to catch the cat, but in the ensuing struggle, it scratched his hand, and Ow threw it on the floor. The cat escaped to the toilet in his kitchen and when it ran out again, Ow caught hold of its hind legs, but got bitten.
The court was told that Ow threw the cat onto the floor again before picking it up to toss it down the rubbish chute.
Later that day, while Ow was returning from a trip to the convenience store to get medication for his scratch wounds on his hands, he chatted with a neighbour, Ms Norrafidah Abdullah. He revealed that he had found a cat, beaten it till it fainted, then threw it down the chute from his third-floor home.
The neighbour later went downstairs and found the carcass of a white and grey cat in the rubbish bin. She alerted the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) afterwards.
Pleading for leniency in court, Ow, a divorcee, said: “At that time, I was in fear because (when) I caught hold of it, it clawed my hand.”
He added: “When I threw it down the chute, it was not dead yet. It was dizzy.”
Ow also said he is now facing financial difficulties and lives from hand to mouth.
But AVA prosecutor Yap Teck Chuan asked for a sentence of at least 10 weeks’ jail. A longer sentence will also act as a deterrence to others not to commit similar acts of animal cruelty, he added.
