A non-resident worker from Vietnam was caught on January 4 for abusing a cat, the first case under the city’s first-ever animal protection law with took effect on September 1 last year, a Public Security Police (PSP) spokesperson has announced.
According to the spokesperson, the suspect, surnamed Pham, is in his twenties.
The spokesperson told a press conference on Friday that the owner of a car repair shop found a pool of blood on the ground outside his garage on October 30 last year. Suspecting something wrong, the owner then watched his shop’s CCTV footage to see what had happened.
The footage showed a male scooter rider stopping in front of his shop when a stray cat lying on the ground in the early morning of that day.
Getting off the scooter, the rider walked near the cat and trampled the feline until it stopped moving. The rider then left the scene.
Later, the scooter rider and another person returned to the scene, according to the CCTV footage. They put the cat’s body in a cardboard box and left.
The shop owner called the police. After investigating, the police identified the scooter rider on January 4. The spokesperson said the scooter rider admitted that he had abused the cat, adding that the scooter rider allegedly drove without a licence.
The spokesperson on Friday did not elaborate on whether the scooter rider had killed the cat or what the suspect did with the cat’s body.
Asked for more information last night, two spokespersons told The Macau Post Daily that they had “nothing to add” to Friday’s press conference, namely whether the cat had been killed by the suspect.
There has been speculation by local netizens that the suspect wanted to kill the cat to eat it. Cat meat, euphemistically known as “baby tiger” meat, is widely n sale in Vietnam.
The suspect has been transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for further investigation and possible arraignment on an animal abuse charge, according to the spokesperson.
The spokesperson said the other person was still at large.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
