A Hong Kong woman who was charged with throwing her dog to its death from her fifth-floor apartment window last year was acquitted yesterday after a judge determined there was insufficient evidence to convict.
Eling Cheung Sze-ling, 56, was charged with one count of animal cruelty after she was arrested for allegedly throwing the brown toy poodle out of her apartment in the Shin Ming Estate in Tseung Kwan O in January of 2018, and just last week the court had decided there was enough evidence to proceed with the case.
At Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Court yesterday afternoon, Deputy Magistrate Philip Chan Chee-fai said that defendant’s statement was not credible and her actions were indeed suspicious.
During the trial, Cheung pleaded not guilty to the charge, and maintained that her dog, “Cheung Jai Jai,” had been missing since December.
In one inconsistency, however, Cheung had admitted to throwing various pet supplies, found near the dog’s body, out of her window because they were “too small, too old, and too dirty,” but Chan said the clothes thrown out would in fact have been too big for the dog.
He also questioned Cheung’s decision not to call the police when the dog went missing, saying that if she had owned him for at least 10 years, the dog should have been microchipped (as required under Hong Kong law), and police would have been able to help her find him.
Despite concluding that Cheung’s testimony was unreliable, Chan ultimately ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict her because, for one thing, the prosecution was unable to prove that hair found outside Cheung’s apartment window belonged to the dog, Apple Daily reports. What’s more, an expert witness from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department had testified that the dog sustained multiple fractures, but was unable to pin down the exact time of death.
After deciding it was not possible to definitively determine whether Cheung did indeed throw the dog from the window, Chan decided to drop the charges.
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