Man sentenced to 5 months' jail for smuggling puppies

SINGAPORE - A Malaysian man was sentenced to 5 months in jail in court on Friday for importing 43 puppies into Singapore without the relevant import permits.

He was also sentenced to 1 month in jail for committing animal cruelty to the 43 puppies.

On March 6, 2014, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) was notified by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on their detection of an illegal import of 43 puppies in a Malaysia-registered lorry at Woodlands Checkpoint during a routine check.

The puppies were housed in metal trays that were stacked on top of each other within two sealed cardboard boxes. The case was referred to AVA for investigation and the puppies were seized.

Further investigation showed that the puppies had been sedated and they had not been transported in accordance to AVA's guidelines which requires pets to be transported into Singapore in containers that comply with the International Air Transport Association standards.

One of the puppies died shortly after arriving at AVA's Sembawang Animal Quarantine Station (SAQS), which may have been a result of the poor transport conditions and sedation.

The remaining puppies are currently under quarantine and AVA is working with our Malaysian counterparts to return the puppies to Malaysia.