Acting out of frustration that cats didn’t want to play with him, Fajar Ashraf Ali hurled one down from the 10th storey of an HDB block before going to the injured animal and slamming it on the ground in an effort to make sure it was dead.
The 25-year-old has since been sentenced to 18 weeks in jail for the appalling act of animal abuse that transpired in the wee hours of May 26 last year at Block 884 Tampines Street 83. It was initially reported that he threw the female shorthair cat from the sixth floor — but the official sentencing revealed that he tossed the feline from the tenth-floor staircase landing.
Fajar pleaded guilty last month to his two charges of animal cruelty. In court, he claimed that he committed the barbaric acts as he was frustrated that cats were not willing to go near him.
Leaving his house around 1am that day, he spotted the cat at Block 884 and lured it into the lift with cat food. They went up to the tenth floor, and Fajar brought it to the staircase landing.
It tried to escape, but Fajar managed to lure it back with more food. The moment the cat returned to him, Fajar tossed it over the staircase landing’s ledge. Afterwards, he went down and made sure the cat was dead by slamming it on the ground twice and attempting to burn it with his lighter.
The resident who saw the horrible scene unfold alerted the police, who nabbed him five days later via CCTV footage.
District judge May Mesenas stated that the sentence of 18 weeks was given to deter others from committing similar acts. Other factors were considered, including the fact that it was Fajar’s first offence and that he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
He could have been slapped with the maximum sentence of 18 months in prison and/or a fine of $15,000 for each count of cruelly ill-treating an animal.
The latest viral case involving alleged killings of cats popped up in Yishun last month, with no news of police being able to find any suspects.
