(HK) Man jailed six months for bludgeoning deer

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South China Morning Post

By Anita Lam 2008-04-22

 

 

Man jailed six months for bludgeoning deer

 

 

 

A man who beat a pregnant barking deer to death with a shovel

 

was sentenced to six months in jail yesterday - possibly the

 

highest penalty ever handed down in a case of animal abuse in

 

the city.

 

Magistrate John Glass said in passing sentence that he

 

accepted Ip Chi-yung, 46, may not have realised the rare

 

mammal was pregnant. Even so, the offence was serious: Ip

 

showed no sympathy for the screaming animal or any remorse

 

later, he said. Ip was convicted on one count of cruelty to

 

animals.

 

The court had heard earlier that Ip was seen hitting a barking

 

deer - a protected wild species in Hong Kong - on a beach near

 

Ham Tin old village at Pui O, with another man, on December

 

31.

 

A university lecturer who witnessed the attack told the court

 

that Ip dragged the deer's body across the beach, leaving a

 

trail of blood.

 

Ip denied killing the deer when confronted by the lecturer,

 

saying a dog had bitten it. But an autopsy showed the deer had

 

died from the effect of forceful blows, not bites.

 

 

In a plea for leniency, defence counsel said Ip was a

 

responsible father of three who regularly took part in charity

 

work. He was under the influence of alcohol at the time and

 

was still troubled by his foolish act. But the judge issued a

 

jail term that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to

 

Animals thought was the heaviest in years. The heaviest

 

penalty available is three years' jail and a fine of

 

HK$200,000.

 

SPCA spokeswoman Rebecca Ngan Yee-ling said most cases of

 

animal torture received penalties ranging from fines to jail

 

terms up to two months, at most. I hope the case awakens

 

public concern that it is not only pet dogs and cats that we

 

should protect from cruel treatment, but also wildlife, she

 

said.

 

 

Meanwhile, a 22-year-old man who pleaded guilty to four counts

 

of cruelty to animals and two counts of raising pets without

 

licenses was fined HK$12,000 and sentenced to 100 hours of

 

community service in Eastern Court. Shu Ngai-fung left seven

 

cats and dogs in three tiny cages out in the rain in February.

 

He was not jailed because he had not meant to harm them, the

 

judge said.

 

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