Leon Perera: People who are cruel to animals will often go on to be cruel to human beings too

SINGAPORE: Earlier this month, Workers’ Party MP Leon Perera (Aljunied GRC) called upon the Ministry of National Development to expedite its current review regarding penalties for individuals found to be cruel to their pet animals. He has also noted the complaints NParks receives about cruelty to animals.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Mar 28), Mr Perera wrote that “People who are cruel to animals will often go on to be cruel to human beings too,” noting that aside from calling on the National Parks Board (Parks) to implement stronger penalties for animal cruelty, he underlined the need for a “complementary restorative approach that seeks to reform animal abusers and also pre-empt acts of cruelty through education.”

Mr Perera began his post by writing, “In my more wistful moments, I like to think that future generations will one day look back on how our civilization treats animals with deep regret.”

He underlined that animals have the capacity to suffer, and this should be sufficient for Singapore “to adopt strong measures as a society and an equally strong public culture that opposes animal cruelty.”

Mr Perera noted that everyone has a hand in creating this type of society, as all people have the ability to speak out against acts of cruelty towards animals when they witness such incidents.

“And in the long-term future, I hope the scientific work being done to synthesize plant-based proteins will enable a wholesale reform of the factory farming system,” he added.

He noted in his Mar 2 speech in Parliament that while NParks receives about 1,200 complaints on average every year, around 20 results in warning letters, 38 in fines and six in jail sentences.

“However, in my opinion, punishments are too lax. Some members of the public have pointed out that the maximum ban of 12 months for owners is lenient and it appears that the Courts do not often impose upper limits of jail terms, which go up to three years. I call on NParks to expedite its ongoing review of these penalties.” /TISG

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