58-year-old Chin Koh Sing, was fined $2,000 on 4 October and banned from owning any pets for 12 months, after telling his son to abandon their vat at a void deck before their family’s move to their new home.
The grey tabby cat, named Felix, was adopted by Chin’s daughter in 2018; and the family was preparing to move to their new home, according to TODAY.
Chin didn’t want to bring the cat to their new home and decided that his family would not be able to care for the cat, he then told his son to find the cat a new home.
However, his son still couldn’t find another owner to adopt the cat on the day of the move, and Chin then told him to release the cat at the void deck of Block 137 Lorong Ah Soo.
A passer-by then caught the son in the act and informed NParks about the incident.
During his mitigation in court, Chin defended himself and said that his daughter was having struggles mentally and had tried to take her own life.
He added that his son then started taking care of her cat for her but was unable to commit to caring for it fully because he worked late.
He admitted to his offences and said that he didn’t know how to care for a cat, but added that he knew he shouldn’t have told his son to abandon the pet.