Man jailed for smuggling 12 puppies in car’s spare tyre compartment; 3 later died

SINGAPORE — An odd-job labourer tried to smuggle 12 puppies from Johor Baru, Malaysia into Singapore last year, cramming them into the spare tyre compartment of his car.

The space was congested, with poor ventilation, and the dogs were not given any food or water during their journey. Three of the puppies, all poodles, died shortly after.

For smuggling the animals through Tuas Checkpoint, Kelvin Phua Yong Lin was sentenced to 32 weeks — or about eight months — behind bars on Wednesday (Aug 7).

The 26-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty to one charge of conveying the puppies in a manner that subjected them to unnecessary suffering, and another charge of importing them without a licence.

The court heard that the dogs comprised one golden retriever, one black poodle and 10 brown poodles.

In December last year, Phua’s friend, identified only as Alex, called him with a job offer to smuggle dogs into Singapore from Johor Baru for S$1,000.

Phua then drove his friend’s car and met another man at the Bukit Indah Tesco car park in Johor Baru at about 9pm on Dec 10.

The man gave him the puppies and Phua then set out to hand over the animals to Alex in Bukit Panjang, Singapore.

At about 3.30am on Dec 11, Phua was stopped in his Mitsubishi Colt at Tuas Checkpoint.

When immigration officers checked his car, they saw that the spare tyre was not placed in the compartment but was outside of it.

Phua had cut a hole in a plastic cover on top of the compartment and put the tyre over the hole to conceal the puppies in there.

After he was instructed by one of the officers to remove the tyre and the puppies were found hidden in the compartment, Phua said that they belonged to him.

An Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) officer later examined the puppies and observed that they appeared tired, sleepy and lethargic with signs of sedation.

Another officer wrote in his report that the way the puppies were conveyed would have caused unnecessary suffering, as they would have been tremendously stressed.

The dogs were quarantined for observation, but three of them died over the next two days. A post-mortem report showed that they suffered from external trauma, dehydration and inflammation in their lungs and heart.

Phua’s lawyer, Mr Choo Si Sen, said in mitigation that his client was in need of money at the time to support his elderly mother, because he had no constant source of income.

Mr Choo told the court that it was Phua’s first offence and he had co-operated with the authorities. Phua was also arrested before he could be paid for the job.

For conveying animals in a manner that subjected them to unnecessary suffering, first-time offenders can be jailed up to a year, fined up to S$10,000, or both.

For importing animals without a valid AVA permit, Phua could have been fined up to S$10,000, jailed up to one year, or both.