Man jailed 32 weeks for trying to smuggle 12 puppies via Tuas Checkpoint, 3 of which later died
SINGAPORE — An odd-job labourer who attempted to make a quick buck by smuggling 12 puppies inside the spare tyre compartment of a car boot was foiled by an alert immigration officer at Tuas Checkpoint in December, a court heard.
The puppies displayed signs of sedation, and were hidden in a congested compartment with poor ventilation and no food or water.
Three died over the next two days.
At the State Courts on Wednesday (7 August), Kelvin Phua Yong Lin was jailed for 32 weeks.
The 26-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty to two charges - for importing the puppies without a licence and for causing them unnecessary suffering.
Cut hole into friend’s car
On 8 December last year, Phua’s friend, who is known only as ‘Alex’, called him to offer him a job smuggling dogs from Johor Bahru to Singapore for a fee of $1,000.
Phua agreed to take up the offer. He borrowed a friend’s car and cut a hole the size of a tyre on the plastic cover of the car boot’s spare tyre compartment.
Two days later, Phua drove his friend’s car to the carpark of a supermarket in Johor Bahru at night.
An unknown Chinese man then transferred the 12 puppies into the hole in the spare tyre compartment of the car, before covering the hole with a spare tyre.
Phua was told to deliver the puppies to ‘Alex’ at Bukit Panjang.
At about 3.30am the next morning, an officer with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) stopped Phua’s white Mitsubishi Colt at Tuas Checkpoint.
Phua was asked if he had anything to declare but said he did not.
Alert officer suspects something amiss
The ICA officer then inspected the car and realised that the spare tyre was placed outside of the spare tyre compartment, instead of inside it. The officer asked Phua to remove the spare tyre and the plastic cover. But Phua said the cover could not be removed.
The officer pried open the cover and found the 12 puppies - a Golden Retriever and 11 poodles - hidden inside the crammed spare tyre compartment.
A veterinarian assessed that the condition in which the puppies were conveyed were unsuitable and would have caused unnecessary suffering to the animals, which would have been tremendously stressed.
The puppies were quarantined for observation, but three poodles died over the next two days.
Post mortem reports indicated that the puppies had experienced an external traumatic incident, were dehydrated and had inflammation of the lungs and heart.
In his mitigation plea, Phua’s lawyer Choo Si Sen said Phua was in need of money to support his aged mother and was “misled” into committing the offences. He was also arrested before he could have been paid for the smuggling job.
Phua was remorseful and pleaded guilty to the charges at the earliest opportunity, added the lawyer.
The maximum penalty for importing an animal without a licence is a fine of up to $10,000 and up to one year in jail.
The maximum punishment for animal cruelty for first-time offenders is also a fine of up to $10,000 and up to one year in jail.
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