A 3-year-old girl was recently attacked by a Serangoon resident’s pet peacock, resulting in the child suffering severe injuries to her face that required stitches.
The incident happened on 28 November near Tavistock Park at Serangoon Gardens.
The mother of the 3-year-old girl, Kris Chan, shared the incident on her Facebook, as she recounted how the pet peacock charged out of the house and attacked her little girl.
Here is her Facebook post in full:
“Some of you would’ve seen my IG/FB stories a few days ago and known of the tragic incident that happened to our little girl last Sunday. Many thanks to all who reached out to us and expressed your concern.
Sorry, we’ve not been able to respond to each and every query as it’s been a trying and tiring few days for us.
Below are more details and follow-up of what happened. Appreciate it if anyone can help us with the relevant legal advice and what we can do to get due justice.
Peacock charged out of house and attacked girl
28.11.2021
Hubby brought our 2 kids to Haus Park Playground and was walking back via Tavistock Ave. There’s a house at the junction near Tavistock park with a peacock and other poultry as pets. Kids will always stop and take a look.
That day was no different. The gate was wide open and the peacock was inside. Our girl stood outside the gate and looked in.
Suddenly the peacock charged out and attacked her aggressively. My husband rushed to protect her but it was too late and he was also attacked by the peacock resulting in scratches all over his arms as well as scrapes on his hands and legs from the tussle.
We rushed to the hospital and were told the wound is too deep. My 3yo little girl needed to be put under general anesthesia in order to open up the wound for cleaning and stitching.
The stitched area is more than 3cm long. On a 3yo little girl’s face. It was a traumatic and upsetting night for all of us.
30.11.2021
After being discharged and resting yesterday, my husband went in the morning to the house to look for the owners of the peacock. Only the wife was there and she admitted to knowing about the incident.
She took our number and said her husband will call back. We waited until 7 pm and still no calls so my husband again went to the house only to find them all in.
Says little girl provoked peacock
This is what we took away from the talk:
* They say their CCTV shows my husband and the kids stopping outside their gate looking in
* They say they’ve consulted lawyers and AVS and all agreed it’s NOT THEIR FAULT as the peacock is free to roam around within their compounds and my girl was staring at the peacock thus provoking it.
* No apology from them at all as it appears they do not think they need to take any responsibility.
* They’ll decide how much to compensate us after the bill comes if any at all.
My questions now are:
* The attack happened OUTSIDE the gate, not within his compounds. At no point did they go inside the gate. The peacock charged OUT, how is that not their fault?
* Are they saying looking is an offense and that my girl being attacked is her fault? She was just standing there looking and not doing anything else.
Wild Animals and Birds Act
* My understanding is under the Wild Animals & Birds Act, “owners must ensure that the peacock is kept within a bird-proof cage or enclosure with a fine wire mesh netting to prevent it from contacting any bird, poultry or animal outside the enclosure”. This was obviously not the case as the peacock was roaming freely. I’m sure many Serangoon Gardens residents who passed that area near Tavistock park/ drove past the exit to AMK Ave 3 will be able to attest to this fact in the past. So what’s this about his claim that AVS saying he’s at no fault?
* What does it mean he’ll decide how much to compensate? Do we get to decide how much we pay the doctors? Do we get to decide how bad my daughter’s scar will be?
* He said he has CCTV recording of the incident from both his place and his neighbor’s. When we asked for a copy of the recordings, he said he needs to “consult his lawyers”. And when we asked again via WhatsApp the next day he said he’ll only give next week when face to face. If he’s so sure he’s not at fault why the reluctance?
* My husband tried to record the convo discreetly so he can have a record of what was said and to show me later but the owner saw and got very agitated and defensive and insisted he deletes with mention of lawyers yet again.
We’re the victims here and we’ve not even begun to talk of lawyers with him but he’s the one that seems to keep insinuating he has a whole legal team behind him? Is he trying to intimidate us into silence?
If he doesn’t have a guilty conscience is that even necessary?
This happened to our beautiful little girl and we’re merely looking for a sincere apology, reasonable compensation, and proper closure to this traumatic incident.
That doesn’t seem too much to ask, is it? Our original intention was for an amicable settlement as we’ve no wish to drag out this painful incident unnecessarily.
But faced with such irresponsible attitudes and unfair claims, we feel proper justice is due to our little girl and to us.
Police report made
We’ve made a police report but were told that this is not a criminal offense and it falls under the purview of AVS.
Apparently, if it’s a dog that bit someone it’s a criminal offense but not when the perpetrator is a bird???
I fail to understand the logic but that’s supposedly the law in Singapore. We’re still waiting for AVS to give us a call.
Photos below of the aftermath of the incident and what it’s done to our little girl.
I’ve set the post to public so please feel free to help and share it with whoever can help us. Thanks.”
Disclaimer: The views presented in this article contain numerous allegations and do not represent the views of Singapore Uncensored, reader discretion is advised.
Source: Kris Chan on Facebook
