Singapore — Some people online have alleged animal abuse by some teenagers playing table football with pawns … and frogs.
The actions of the teens allegedly abusing frogs by using them for entertainment purposes was highlighted on social media around Christmas day. One Instagram handle called @thetwainhavemet (TTHM) was tipped off by a reader and documented the incident, including video footage of the alleged animal abuse.
TTHM tagged the actions as “absolutely inhumane and cruel”. The incident appears to have happened over Christmas based on one of the story captions noting “Merry Christmas”.
In one of the videos, a player is shown hitting a frog with the ball. The frog hits the table wall before jumping away. “It’s baffling that any person would do this for entertainment,” commented TTHM. It has been claimed that 100 frogs were involved.
Here is TTHM’s statement on the incident: “The acts in the previous story was animal abuse, plain and simple. It’s cruel and inhumane and simply terrible, and if you ever see it happening, try and intervene to the best of your ability. To the animal abusers in the previous video: We know who you are. Torturing animals isn’t cool or fun. It’s horrific, and you should be ashamed of yourselves for using these poor frogs’ pain as entertainment and spectacle. Be decent human beings and do better.”
Clips of the videos are also circulating in Reddit, garnering responses from the online community to identify the youths in the videos and take them to task.
It appears that some of the youths responded to the incident, denying the allegations of animal abuse. One person denied “playing foosball” with the frogs. “There was no intention of animal cruelty on my part,” the individual said.
According to a mothership.sg report, the case has been reported to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. SPCA executive director Jaipal Singh Gill said the video clearly indicated animal cruelty, which is punishable under the law.
Members of the public with information on the incident are advised to email SPCA at inspector@spca.org.sg. The disclosed information will be treated as highly confidential.
Furthermore, the Animal and Veterinary Service, a branch of NParks, has been notified of the case, expressing concern over the incident. AVS official Jessica Kwok noted that it takes all public feedback on animal cruelty seriously. The service is investigating the case, reported mothership.sg.
In an update, TTHM said they were able to “piece together the identities of the six individuals that were present at the gathering”.
/TISG
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