Woman jailed 4 weeks for killing parrot with bamboo pole in Sengkang flat

Lucky the parrot did not live up to its name after it pecked the face of its owner's stepmother.

Tran Thi Thuy Hang opened the pet bird's cage and bludgeoned it to death with a bamboo pole before tossing it down a rubbish chute.

The 38-year-old Vietnamese manicurist was sentenced to four weeks' jail yesterday after pleading guilty last month to ill-treating the bird.

Ms Yu Mei Ling, 26, had Lucky on her shoulder in the living room of her Sengkang flat when Hang returned home from work on Oct 27 last year.

As the Singapore permanent resident walked past, the parrot flew towards her and pecked her right cheek. Hang then ran into her room and complained to her husband, Mr Yu Ching Meng, 60.

"In anger, (Hang) demanded that the parrot be removed from the house immediately, failing which she would kill the parrot," Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority prosecutor Yap Teck Chuan told the court.

The next day, after Mr Yu and his daughter left the flat at around 8am, Hang took a bamboo laundry pole, opened the parrot's cage and hit it several times until it died.

When Mr Yu returned home after his breakfast, Hang showed her husband the carcass and told him what she had done, then she dumped the carcass and the bird cage down the central rubbish chute outside their flat.

In his sentencing, District Judge Adam Nakhoda said Hang's actions were cruel, calculated and deliberate.

For animal cruelty, Hang could have been jailed for up to 18 months and fined up to $15,000.

This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.