19-year-old Braden Yap Hong Sheng, who was seen in a viral CCTV video in Johor Bahru torturing a dog by beating it with a metal rod and dousing it with alcohol before setting the dog on fire, was given 7 strokes of caning on Tuesday (18 April).
He had pleaded guilty to committing an act of animal cruelty and was also seen in a video making a public apology and asking the public for forgiveness.
The judge who sentenced him to 7 strokes of the cane, said that although his actions were cruel and inhumane, they didn’t warrant a jail sentence. And he was granted a bail of RM10,000.
Yap was charged with cruelly causing undue pain to a brown coloured female dog on 27 March last month, at Jalan Impian Emas 22, Taman Impian Emas, Skudai, at about 1.49am in the middle of the night.
The Judge, Che Wan Zaidi Wan Ibrahim, also ordered the release of Yap on a good behavior bond of one year, and said that they took his actions into account before passing the sentence, as well as the fact that he was a “young, first time offender who pleaded guilty early”.
The judge told Yap that whatever threat the dog had posed against him, he shouldn’t have acted cruelly and should have lodged a report to the enforcement agency instead.
He added that it is also the court’s responsibility to punish him appropriately by taken into account the public interest factor, so that this doesn’t happen again.
Yap is set to receive his caning sentence on 21 May at 9am.
Recap
19-year-old Braden Yap Hong Sheng was seen in the CCTV footage throwing a vase at the dogs that were seeking shelter at a staircase beside a veterinary clinic on 8 March.
The man then returned to the same spot about 6 days later on 14 March, and attacked the dogs by throwing rocks and bricks at them.
On 27 March, he returned once again, armed with a metal rod and using it to hit the dogs with it, before driving away from the scene.
However, he later returned to the scene and set one of the dogs on fire.