Man who kills cats by throwing them off HDB blocks, jailed 14 months
Nadine Chua for The Straits Times
A man who vented his frustrations by abusing cats and killed two felines by throwing them off high floors at HDB blocks was sentenced to 14 months' jail on Feb 7.
Barrie Lin Pengli, 32, abused five cats over a period of one year and eight months, in what the prosecution said was one of the worst cases of cruelty to animals.
Lin would initially kick the animals when the abuse started at the end of 2019. This soon escalated to him stuffing cats into suffocating sealable bags before releasing them.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Regina Lim said Lin felt a sense of excitement, thrill and guilt while abusing the cats, and a sense of relief after he abused them.
Of the five cats Lin abused, two were killed and one was severely injured. The other two cats were trapped in suffocating conditions before they were released.
In sentencing Lin, Deputy Principal District Judge Kessler Soh called the acts abhorrent, noting that Lin had killed, maimed and caused unnecessary pain to these community cats.
The prosecution had sought a jail term of 24 months but the judge said he found this "somewhat excessive".
Lin, who has been banned from owning any animal for a year after his release from jail, had pleaded guilty in October 2024 to three counts of animal cruelty.
He was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, but Judge Soh had declined to call for a mandatory treatment order in lieu of jail time.
The DPP said that whenever Lin felt frustrated with life, he would go for walks in Ang Mo Kio, looking out for cats to vent his anger. He picked the area as he knew the area had more cats, she said.
At around 3.30am on April 21, 2020, Lin dropped a cat from the 12th floor of Block 572 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3. The cat died on impact.
He disposed of its carcass in a different area not mentioned in court documents. The cat was never found.
About a month later, on May 15, 2020, Lin dangled another cat over the parapet of the eighth floor of Block 645 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6.
The cat struggled and scratched his hand, before he dropped it.
When Lin went to the ground floor and saw that the cat was still alive, he stomped on its neck to kill it.
He then disposed of the carcass in a dustbin at a nearby bus stop.
An eyewitness who saw Lin kill the second cat alerted the police. He was arrested on the same day and released on bail.
Between December 2020 and June 2021, he sought psychiatric help and his depression symptoms improved.
He got a full-time job in November 2021 and things started looking up. However, he re-offended a month later.
After a Christmas gathering with friends, Lin went to the block where he killed the second cat, as he wanted to test if he could control his urges to hurt animals.
That day, he caught a cat and slammed it against a void deck wall twice.
DPP Lim said the cat could be heard screaming in pain. The animal eventually escaped Lin's grip and sprinted away.
Community cat feeders heard about the abuse and took the cat to a veterinarian, who found it had suffered multiple fractures.
In her submissions, DPP Lim said: "The manner in which the accused abused the cats was brutal and he should be made to pay for what he had done."
She added that despite Lin's psychiatric condition, he retained his abilities to control his impulses.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Azri Imran Tan, said: "There is little that can be said by (Lin's defence) counsel about the acts themselves, and I will not attempt to justify these acts."
He called the acts a "maladaptive series of attempts to reduce emotional pain", and said Lin, who is a first-time offender, deeply regrets his actions.
Mr Tan added that his client got married in September 2023 and has the support of his family in his rehabilitation.
First-time offenders convicted of animal cruelty can be jailed for up to 18 months, fined up to $15,000, or both.
