Woman who retracted guilty plea over neglecting dogs handed harsher sentence
A woman was jailed four weeks and fined $6,000 at the State Courts on Wednesday (4 April) after unsuccessfully contesting the charges against her, which included illegally owning and neglecting her three dogs.
Chng Leng Khim, 44, was convicted in January this year on three counts of failing to bring her dogs – a bull mastiff, a poodle and a chow chow – to a veterinarian, thus causing them unnecessary suffering. She was also convicted on one count of failing to comply with a lawful demand by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and three counts of owning the dogs without licenses.
Chng had retracted her guilty plea in the High Court in October 2016, claiming that she had only admitted the offences out of “fear and extreme pressure”. Her original sentence was 10 days’ jail and a fine of $3,100.
Appearing in court on Wednesday with her 22-year-old daughter, Chng, who works in a restaurant, said that she was planning to appeal against both her conviction and sentence.
‘Forced by circumstances’
The offences took place in 2013 while Chng was staying in a rented portion of a landed property at 45 Paya Lebar Crescent. She had moved into the property in January that year but moved out on 11 June after failing to pay her rent.
At the time, she told her landlady Khoo Kim Cheng that she would pick up her dogs the following day. However, the poodle was found emaciated and covered in ticks within the vicinity of Paya Lebar Crescent by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) that same day.
Khoo also found the chow chow and bull mastiff roaming the property’s dirty premises on 13 June. She informed the AVA, whose officers found the two dogs thin and infested with ticks. The chow chow also had a lot of missing fur.
Chng was later served a letter requiring her attendance at the AVA’s premises on 26 July 2013 to provide a statement regarding the dogs, but she did not turn up.
After two years and several failed attempts to locate Chng, the AVA obtained a warrant of arrest for her. Chng was arrested at Geylang Road on 30 June 2015.
During the trial, Chng – who was unrepresented – testified that she did not send the dogs to a vet because she felt they were healthy. She also argued that she had tried to de-tick the dogs but had problems doing so as she lacked water and electricity.
In mitigation, Chng blamed Khoo for placing the animals and family “under distress” and denied having been cruel to the dogs. Chng added that she had even begged for water for the animals.
“We are forced by circumstances to be in this situation. I did not ask for the electricity to stop… there’s nothing we can do,” she said.
She added that her neighbours stopped helping the family after media reports of the court case surfaced. “I am the main provider (of my family), I cannot go to jail,” said Chng, who also has two sons aged 17 and 23.
Following Chng’s retraction of her guilty plea, her case was sent back to the lower courts for a trial. This time around, however, the prosecution proceeded with all seven charges against Chng instead of the five she had originally pleaded guilty to.
Seeking a four-week jail term and $6,000 fine, the prosecution claimed that a custodial sentence was necessary to reflect Chng’s serious neglect of her dogs, which had suffered over a “prolonged period”.
The chow chow and poodle have since been re-homed to an animal welfare group while the bull mastiff was euthanised in January 2014 due to its health conditions.
For causing unnecessary pain or suffering to her dogs, Chng could have been jailed up to 12 months and fined up to $10,000 on each count.
Related story:
Woman who retracted plea of guilt for neglecting 3 dogs convicted after trial
