Man who left 43 cats with no food, water in empty flat gets 20 days jail

A man who left his 43 cats behind in poor living conditions when he moved to a new home has been sentenced to 20 days jail.

Muhammad Danial Sukirman, 31, pleaded guilty to 10 charges of causing unnecessary pain and suffering to a pet on Wednesday (April 24), Lianhe Zaobao reported.

Another 34 charges under the Animal and Birds Act, as well as one charge of failing to comply with a written notice requiring his attendance before an officer from the Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS), were also taken into consideration for sentencing.

This is the National Parks Board's (NParks) largest animal cruelty prosecution in terms of pet numbers to date, reported Today. It is also believed to be the first jail sentence meted out for a conviction under Section 42(1)(d) of the Act, pertaining to neglect by pet owners.

Foul stench from flat

Danial's cats were found by the police on Nov 5, 2021 after they received complaints of a foul stench coming from a flat at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6.

Unable to reach Danial, police officers at the scene called in a locksmith to let them into the flat. 

Inside, they discovered more than 30 cats living in cramped, unsanitary conditions with no food, clean water or ventilation, reported Lianhe Zaobao. There were also two dead cats and skeletal remains.

The police informed AVS, a cluster of NParks. NParks officers were able to contact Danial the same evening and arrange to inspect his flat three days later.

The inspection revealed that Danial and his wife had moved into the flat to stay with his mother-in-law in January 2016.

According to Danial, they had only three cats initially and he took over ownership of the them after his mother-in-law died.

Since the cats were not sterilised, they started to breed uncontrollably until he "lost count" of the number of cats staying in his house, he told the NParks officers. 

In July 2021, Danial and his wife moved to a new flat in Yishun and were given six months to vacate their Ang Mo Kio flat.

Despite the deadline, Danial did not rehome the cats and instead left them behind in the vacant flat.

He would return to feed them once a week from one big bag of dry kibble, which the felines would constantly fight over, reported Today.

After the inspection, Danial surrendered the 41 surviving cats and the remains of the other two were surrendered to AVS. 

Only source of water was contaminated

A veterinarian who examined the surviving cats found that all of them had experienced "pain and suffering", because they did not have access to a regularly available source of clean water, reported Lianhe Zaobao.

"The only source of water was from a tap dripping onto the toilet floor of the unit," said NParks prosecutor Farisha Asharaff.

"The toilet floor was noted to be pooling with dirty brown water, likely from faecal contamination."

Nineteen cats were diagnosed with alopecia, which is hair loss on a cat's body due to underlying disease, and three of them tested positive for ringworms.

Noting that a fine would be "far too lenient", the prosecution sought a jail term for Danial, who knew that the cats were breeding “out of control” yet managed their living conditions poorly, reported Today. 

For each charge of causing unnecessary pain or suffering to a pet, he could have been jailed for up to 18 months or fined up to S$15,000, or both. 

ALSO READ: Neighbours raise a stink over woman rearing 40 cats in her Ang Mo Kio flat

bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com