Police officers at premises of Platinium Dogs Club in standoff with woman inside cordoned area
UPDATE: Statement from Singapore Civil Defence Force on the person who was sent to hospital
UPDATE 2: Statement from the police on the incident at 7 Galistan Avenue
Police officers turned up at the premises of Platinium Dogs Club on Wednesday afternoon (2 January) with a woman, who is alleged to be linked to the controversial pet boarding facility, being caught in a standoff with the police, according to an eyewitness.
Derrick Tan, 37, who was standing outside the premises at 7 Galistan Avenue, told Yahoo News Singapore that several officers who were at the gate of the house were talking to the woman. A section of the area was also cordoned off.
The woman, who was sitting in a car just beyond the gate, had refused to step out of the vehicle and talk to the officers, added Tan, who is the founder and president of Voices for Animals.
“There were two police cars and an ambulance and lots of officers (outside the premises). I also saw an injured person who was taken to hospital,” Tan said.
It was unclear how the person was injured. Tan, who turned up shortly after the person was brought to hospital, said several witnesses had told him that while the woman was being driven out in a car as she tried to leave the house, the car was reversing and it hit the person there.
At around 7pm, the standoff ended. A man was seen driving the car with the woman sitting in the front passenger seat and leaving the premises.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it was alerted to a road traffic accident at 7 Galistan Avenue at 4.52pm. A person was conveyed conscious to Ng Teng Fong Hospital. Yahoo News Singapore understands that the person’s injury is not serious.
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, the police said they were alerted to a case of a group of people who had gathered outside 7 Galistan Avenue, and was obstructing its driveway.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that a 40-year-old man from the group had alleged that he was hit by the vehicle that was reversing out of the compound of the unit. The man was subsequently conveyed to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in a conscious state,” the statement said.
The 33-year-old driver of the vehicle and the group of people comprising seven women and four men, including the 40-year-old man, are assisting with police investigations, it added.
The drama outside the premises comes after several dog owners claimed in the past few weeks that their pets had been mistreated by Platinium under its care. One dog owner told Yahoo News Singapore that QQ, her 14-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, died after a stay at the facility.
Separately, a worker at Mobile Pet Cremation Services, a pet cremation company, told Yahoo News Singapore on Monday that he had handled requests from a woman in December for Mobile Pet’s services. The worker said three dogs were taken from the premises on separate occasions last month for cremation.
The complaints by the dog owners prompted an investigation by the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and a raid of Platinium’s premises by the authorities.
During inspections of Platinium’s premises, the AVA found 18 dogs and a rabbit. Yahoo News Singapore understands that these animals were found during a raid on Monday and an earlier one on Saturday.
Tan also saw several persons who were standing outside the premises holding a “Missing Dog” notice bearing the picture of Prince, a seven-year-old Shetland sheepdog.
Elaine Mao, 34, a bid manager, had left Prince under the care of Platinium. Prince was nowhere to be found during the raid by authorities on Saturday, Mao told Yahoo News Singapore on Monday. Mao had cut short her holiday to join the search for Prince.
additional reporting by Amir Hussain.
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