Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Abandonment not 'cruelty'

I read this post from Meowies and was disappointed to see that yet again, it seems that there are some police officers still unaware that abandonment is an offence. They met some people who abandoned their cat and admitted to it. However when they went to the police to file a report they were told there was no 'cruelty' involved.

If you go to the Animal and Birds Act at the Singapore Statutes online however and look at Section 42(1) (f), you'll see that not only is abandonment a crime, it is defined specifically as cruelty to animals.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do we still have confidence in our police force??

ethantan said...

God! If the police officers don't even know the law, how are they gonna enforce it???

Anonymous said...

We cannot blame the officers as they are not trained lawyers nor can you expect them to know statutes as diverse as the Accountants Act to the Weights and Measures Act. What you should do is write to the Attorney-General's Chambers, tell them that you made such a report at so and so place and time and the the officer in charge dismissed it. Ask the AGC to review that decision and cite the relevant section of the Animals and Birds Act. It might work.

Anonymous said...

But surely they should possess enough brain to say..hmm..let me check it up..and a google will churn up the info!
Just another "slip" in performance?

Dawn said...

Hi Anonymous, I'm sure we don't expect the police officers to be lawyers and to know the law - but frankly, they're not going to be asked to really enforce the Weights and Measures Act nor the Accountants Act. They should however be able to enforce things which are criminal offences - which abandonment is.

For example, one would expect a police officer to be aware that say, theft is a criminal offence - even though he or she is not a lawyer.

If you write to the AGC, and mention they are going to find it difficult to proceed because no report was ever filed.

What I would suggest is to go back, try and file the report again and bring the statute up if the officer doesn't know it.