SINGAPORE — A 26-year-old woman was given a year-long mandatory treatment order on Thursday (Nov 14) for abusing her pet chihuahua to death by beating it, feeding it only once every two to three days and slamming it on the ground.

Sophia Ong Daijuan was also banned from obtaining any new pets for a year, but will be able to keep her current dog as a psychiatrist said it could worsen her major depressive disorder if the dog was taken away from her.

In September, she had pleaded to a district court to let her hold on to her current pet. She said that it was her “emotional support” and that she had suffered from panic attacks when it was taken away from her during investigations.

She was then allowed to keep the dog as it was found to be healthy with no sign of abuse.

“I admit that I didn't treat (the dogs) well, but I understand that it was my responsibility (to take care of them) even when I was not in the right mind,” she added.

A National Parks Board prosecutor sought the disqualification order in September, and did not object to the mandatory treatment order — a community sentencing option offered to offenders suffering from mental conditions that contributed to the offence — on Thursday.

Ong pleaded guilty to two charges of abusing the female chihuahua, with another charge taken into consideration for sentencing. 

WHAT HAPPENED

The court heard that on Feb 23 last year, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) received feedback that Ong might have killed her chihuahua at her home in Yishun earlier that day.

During investigations, Ong claimed that earlier that morning, she saw the chihuahua’s tail soiled with faeces. 

In the toilet, she decided to give the dog a shower. She said that she then left it unattended in the basin with the tap water running as she went to her room to use her telephone. 

When she returned about five minutes later, she found that her chihuahua was lifeless and submerged in the water with its front right paw stuck in the drainage hole. 

Ong claimed that she then tried to resuscitate the dog by using some force to press its chest and blow air into its mouth, but it did not respond. 

Ong’s mother then arranged for a pet cremation service provider to collect the carcass for cremation later that day.

Before it was cremated, AVA officers managed to retrieve the chihuahua from the pet cremation service provider to conduct a post-mortem. 

The examination uncovered that the chihuahua’s death was caused by a traumatic incident directed at its head and abdomen.

The injuries were accompanied by liver lacerations, bleeding abdomen and bits of bleeding within the dog’s lung.

There was no evidence of lesions that suggested any drowning incident, and injuries found on it were not consistent with chest compression from administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation as Ong had claimed.

Further investigations by the AVA found that a friend of Ong's witnessed her picking up her chihuahua by its neck and throwing it down with great force on one occasion in December 2017. 

She went on to pull the dog’s hind leg with excessive force, causing it to limp.

That friend later visited Ong on Jan 12 last year and that was when she noticed that the dog appeared to be very weak.