A 58-year-old Malaysian man was fined SGD11,000 or approximately RM34,000 by the Singapore Court last Wednesday (7 July 2021) after he was caught on video taking his five dogs into Upper Peirce Reservoir Park during the nation’s Circuit Breaker (CB) period last year and throwing one of the dogs from a height of 1 metre into a 70 metre deep drainage canal for a swim. Thankfully, the dog wasn’t harmed despite the serious possibility for it to drown.
Not only was his act against the CB regulations during that period whereby non-essential outings were prohibited, but the act of bringing pets into a nature reserve is strictly prohibited in Singapore.
As reported by Today Online, the man, Cheong Wah Meng is a Singapore Permanent Resident from Malaysia and was given a stern written warning for taking his pets into the same nature reserve two years prior to the incident. Cheong’s most recent offence was caught by a member of the public who filmed him and his dogs. The video clip later went viral on social media.
Screenshots from the viral video of Cheong throwing his dog into a canal.
During trial, Cheong pleaded guilty to eight charges of taking pets into a nature reserve, trespassing into a ‘no entry’ area, failing his duty of care to a pet, not leashing the dogs in a public place and keeping more than three dogs without authorisation. Furthermore, the court also considered nineteen other similar charges, including breaking Covid-19 laws by leaving his home during the CB for consideration during sentencing.
Cheong first took his dogs to the reservoir park on May 8 last year. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage then caught him releasing his five dogs — a poodle, a labrador retriever, a mongrel and two golden retrievers — to run freely from his van into the nature reserve through a side gate.
Cheong Wah Meng pleaded guilty to the charges in court.
The next day on 9 May 2020, he returned with his domestic worker and the dogs. He parked his van outside the main gate of the nature reserve, which was closed throughout the day during the circuit breaker to discourage visitors from driving there, and entered through the side gate.
Then at the bridge over a drainage canal at the park, Cheong allowed the three retriever dogs to enter the canal before dropping the poodle into the fast flow running water below. He then walked along the grass verge and met his pets at the outflow of Lower Peirce Reservoir. He repeated this routine several times before leaving the park.
If Cheong fails to pay the RM34,000 fine, he has to serve 40 days in jail for his offences.
What do you guys think of Cheong’s action? Is the punishment fair for the offences that he committed? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
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