Aug 25, 2006
SITNews: Eight weeks' jail for cat torturer
by Kushwant Singh
CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Wong tortured the cat until it could not be revived, then bashed its body against a wall. -- PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
AN AIR-CON technician pleaded guilty in the Community Court to torturing a cat and was jailed for eight weeks yesterday.
Malaysian Wong Geng Thong, 28, had befriended the cat after having dinner at a Haig Road coffee shop on July 31.
He fed it some cat food he had in his van and played with it. But when it scratched his leg, he became furious and put it in his van before driving off.
He reached the multi-storey carpark at Block 93A Jalan Dua, off Old Airport Road, at about 1.40am and parked in a deserted corner. He let the cat out but grew angry when it started running around.
He tied a wire noose around its neck and lifted the wire, hanging the cat by the neck. Every time the cat lost consciousness, Wong would revive it by massaging its chest.
He repeated his cruel game until the cat could not be revived.
Removing the wire noose, he grabbed the cat by the neck and bashed its body against the wall several times. He threw it on the floor and kept kicking it before driving off.
Wong did not realise all this had been captured on a spy camera in the carpark.
After cleaners found the grisly remains of 10 cats in the neighbourhood over the past five months, animal lovers started weekend patrols and raised funds to buy video cameras.
They then convinced the town council to hook up six miniature cameras to zoom in on areas in the carpark where several of the mangled bodies were found.
Mr Ishak Puteh, 42, a cleaner, called one of the animal lovers when he found the dead cat on Aug 1 at about 9.30am.
He alerted Miss Sandy Lim, who spotted a blue-and-white van in the video footage of a man swinging a cat from a lasso-like rope tied to its neck.
The education consultant, who is her 40s, scoured the neighbourhood, found the van and tailed the man to his workplace in Eunos, where he was later arrested by the police.
Miss Lim and two other cat lovers, who were in court yesterday, said they had expected a stiffer sentence.
She said: 'The punishment did not take into account the full severity of the crime as about 10 cats have been killed.'
Added graphic designer Fiona Yuen, 32: 'We've no doubts he is a serial cat killer.'
In passing sentence, District Judge Bala Reddy stressed the seriousness of the offence. He also noted that the psychiatrist who examined Wong was concerned he might abuse people too.
Wong could have been jailed up to a year and fined up to $10,000.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is upset with the sentence, and will be submitting an appeal to the Attorney-General's Chambers.
Said the executive officer of the SPCA, Miss Deirdre Moss: 'With due respect to the courts, the SPCA thinks the punishment does not fit the crime, and may be sending out the wrong signal that such brutality is tolerated in society.''
There is no bloody justice and fairness left in this society at all.
They've got all their priorities mixed up.