Woman, 28, kept smuggled puppies at home to sell online, first in S'pore to be jailed for such offence
The pets were smuggled and kept in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
A woman, 28-year-old Ng Siew Teng, and her husband Callurn Lim, 34-year-old, have become the first couple in Singapore to be jailed for illegally importing and keeping puppies at home for sale online. The couple, who are now facing 19 weeks and three days imprisonment each, as well as a fine of S$5,000, were caught in December 2023 after Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers found smuggled Pomeranian puppies in their vehicle.
They had sold 21 puppies on Instagram, generating around S$21,000 in revenue. Ng Lim made history as the first person in Singapore to receive jail time for the Section 48(1) charge, which involves keeping animals in captivity to be sold as pets. The animals were found to be in poor health, suffering from Canine Parvovirus, a highly contagious disease preventable through vaccination.
In a separate case, a man named Sundra Pandian, 33-year-old, was sentenced to 24 weeks imprisonment for keeping 13 smuggled animals at his residence, including dogs and cats. Pandian, who aided in smuggling the animals from Thailand through Malaysia, was found to be keeping the animals in poor conditions, stacked up to three levels high in his service yard.
Written by urgent.news from Mothership's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
