Woman who beat parrot to death for biting her admits to animal cruelty
Angry that her stepdaughter’s pet parrot had bitten her on the right cheek, Viet national Tran Thi Thuy Hang threatened to kill the bird and demanded that it be removed from their flat immediately.
When the parrot remained in the Rivervale Walk residence the next day, Hang, 38, hit the bird several times with a laundry pole, killing it.
Hang, a Singapore permanent resident, pleaded guilty to one charge of animal cruelty on Wednesday (25 July). Her sentence will be adjourned to 1 August.
The parrot, named Lucky, was a Sun Conure, a species of parrot native to South America. It belonged to Hang’s 26-year-old stepdaughter Yu Mei Ling, who shares an apartment with Hang and her biological father.
On 27 October last year between 8.00pm and 9.00pm, Yu was in the living room of the flat while carrying Lucky on her shoulder. When Hang came home and walked past Yu, Lucky flew over to Hang and bit her on the right cheek near her eye.
In pain, Hang ran to her room and complained about the parrot to her husband. She demanded that Lucky be removed from their home, failing which she would kill it.
The next morning, she noticed that the parrot was still in its cage. When Yu and her father had left the house after 8am, Hang opened Lucky’s cage and hit it repeatedly with a laundry pole. Lucky eventually died from the blows.
When Hang’s husband returned home about an hour later, she showed him the parrot carcass and told him that she had hit it several times with the pole. She later disposed of the carcass in the central rubbish chute.
Yu made a complaint about her stepmother to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) on 6 November.
The prosecution asked for at least five weeks imprisonment for Hang. Her lawyer Leong Keng Kheong, said that his client had not intended to kill the parrot. He said Hang committed the act out of frustration and that she had “bled profusely” after the parrot bit her.
Leong sought a “heavy fine” or a week’s jail for Hang.
For animal cruelty, Hang faces a jail term of up to 18 months and/or a fine of up to $15,000.
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