Man jailed 20 months for abusing, killing two poodles
A man ran down almost 20 storeys of a HDB staircase with his leashed dog tied to his body, causing its subsequent death.
Yeo Poh Kwee's wanton abuse of his female pet poodle, named Yoyi, caused it to be slammed against the walls and steps repeatedly on the way down.
The 46-year-old driver started from the 38th storey and stopped running on the 19th storey when he realised Yoyi was bleeding from the hind legs.
He then left it at the staircase landing and went home.
Yesterday, Yeo was given the maximum 18 months' jail for animal cruelty, and two months for abandoning Yoyi without reasonable cause or excuse on Dec 21 last year.
He was also given 12 months' jail for another count of animal cruelty when he failed to take a different dog under his care to a veterinarian for treatment.
That resulted in the death of the male toy poodle, Brownie, on Nov 22 last year. Its owner was Ms Dawn Seet Woon Qi, 28.
As the first two sentences are consecutive, Yeo's total sentence was 20 months' jail.
District Judge Eddy Tham banned him from owning any animal for 12 months - the maximum - from the date of his release from prison.
In the latter case, Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority prosecutor Yap Teck Chuan said Yeo had responded to Ms Seet's Facebook post to rehome her poodle on Nov 18. Days later, she handed over Brownie to him. That evening, when she contacted Yeo to check on the dog, he claimed it had turned aggressive and bit his fingers.
He also said it had got stuck between the pipe and wall in the toilet and injured its nose.
Ms Seet told him to take the dog to a veterinarian, but he declined, saying he had to shower and clean the dog, which was bleeding and covered in urine and faeces. The next evening, Yeo told her Brownie had died.
Ms Seet and her husband reported him to the police.
A post-mortem showed the dog had suffered extensive injuries with internal bleeding.
Judge Tham said: "The conclusion is that of a fatal external traumatic incident from blunt force trauma directed at the head, hind limb, shoulder, thoracic and abdominal areas." - THE STRAITS TIMES
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