Prosecution appeals against sentence of man who killed cats by throwing them off HDB blocks

SINGAPORE – Prosecutors are appealing against a 14-month jail term handed to a man who abused five cats, and killed two of them by throwing them off high floors of Housing Board blocks.

They had sought a jail term of 24 months for Barrie Lin Pengli, 32, who they said committed one of the worst cases of animal cruelty in Singapore.

Lin, who was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, was

handed the jail term on Feb 7.

Deputy Principal District Judge Kessler Soh called the acts abhorrent, noting that Lin had killed, maimed and caused unnecessary pain to these community cats.

But the judge said he found the 24-month jail term the prosecution asked for “somewhat excessive”, based on the sentences meted out in similar cases.

Both the prosecution and the defence appealed on Feb 11 against Lin’s sentence.

Lin’s lawyer Azri Imran Tan told the court that the defence’s appeal was filed in response to the prosecution’s appeal.

Lin started serving his sentence on Feb 11 while awaiting the outcome of the appeals. He has also been banned from owning any animal for a year after his release from jail.

He admitted to three counts of animal cruelty in October 2024. The court heard he had abused five cats over one year and eight months.

He would initially kick the animals when the abuse started, some time around end-2019. This soon escalated to his stuffing cats into sealable bags before releasing them.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Regina Lim 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 on. He picked the area as he knew it 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 and he disposed of its carcass in a different area not mentioned in court documents.

About a month later, on May 15, 2020, Lin dropped another cat over the parapet of the eighth floor of Block 645 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6.

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 rubbish bin at a nearby bus stop.

An eyewitness who saw Lin kill the second cat alerted the police. Lin 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 reoffended a month later.

After a Christmas gathering with friends, Lin went to the block where he had 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.

Ms Jessica Kwok, group director of enforcement and investigation at the National Parks Board (NParks), said on Feb 7 that the board received an annual average of 1,200 reports of animal cruelty and abuse from 2019 to 2024.

After investigations, NParks found that no more than 6 per cent of the cases each year were substantiated as acts of animal cruelty and abuse.

Enforcement action was taken against the offenders, such as issuing a warning letter or a fine. For egregious cases, offenders were prosecuted in court.

First-time offenders convicted of animal cruelty can be jailed for up to 18 months, fined up to $15,000, or both, for every charge.