Pet shop owner convicted for keeping 60 cats and dogs in flat without water
Pet shop owner gets suspended jail terms for causing suffering to animals and is told by magistrate she is not qualified to keep them
Friday, 11 October, 2013 [Updated: 3:11AM]
Thomas Chan [email protected]
Pet shop owner convicted for keeping 60 cats and dogs in flat without water
A pet shop owner who kept 60 cats and dogs in a small flat without food or water, causing the deaths of some of them, was given suspended jail terms yesterday by a magistrate who said she should not keep animals again for the rest of her life.
Yu Wing-sze, 45, received concurrent six-month jail terms, suspended for three years, on each of three charges of causing unnecessary suffering to animals. Yu, who pleaded guilty, was also fined a total of HK$70,000 on these charges and one of keeping dogs without a licence.
"[The animals] were in a bad state ... and some had to be put down. I am afraid you are the direct cause," Principal Magistrate Ernest Lin Kam-hung said, passing sentence.
"If I had the power, I would order that you are not qualified to accompany animals for the rest of your life," Lin said. "But I am not empowered to do so."
Kwun Tong Court heard earlier that the ill-treatment came to light on February 17 when Yu's neighbour in Cheung Sha Wan reported a bad smell to the police.
In Yu's flat, police found some of the animals confined in stacked cages. Four cats were dead and some had infectious diseases. Under caution, Yu told police that all the animals were in good health during her last visit on February 15, and that she did not feed them on the following day because she was ill.
She also said she rented the flat to keep the animals after her pet shop closed in 2011. She said she occasionally bought new pets, so 60 animals ended up under her care.
But Lin rejected her claim, saying that the neglect must have been more than one day.
Quoting a probation officer's report, John Reading SC said Yu was kind-hearted and caring towards animals, and it was not a case of deliberate cruelty. "She was a lady who tried to do the best she could, but what she could do was inadequate," Reading said.
Lin told Yu: "If you really love animals, do not keep them."
The court heard yesterday the seized animals were now under the care of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The suspended sentence drew criticism from an animal rights activist who said the penalty was not harsh enough. Mark Mak Chi-ho, of the non-profit Veterinary Service Society, said Yu was as cruel as cat strangler An Haizhou, who had his jail term more than doubled to seven months last week.
