SINGAPORE - A man who vented his frustrations by abusing cats and killed two felines by throwing them off high floors at HDB blocks was sentenced to 14 months’ jail on Feb 7.

Barrie Lin Pengli, 32, abused five cats over a period of one year and eight months, in what the prosecution said was one of the worst cases of cruelty to animals.

Lin would initially kick the animals when the abuse started at the end of 2019. This soon escalated to him stuffing cats into suffocating sealable bags before releasing them.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Regina Lim said Lin felt a sense of excitement, thrill and guilt while abusing the cats, and a sense of relief after he abused them.

Of the five cats Lin abused, two were killed and one was severely injured. The other two cats were trapped in suffocating conditions before they were released.

In sentencing Lin, Deputy Principal District Judge Kessler Soh called the acts abhorrent, noting that Lin had killed, maimed and caused unnecessary pain to these community cats.

The prosecution had sought a jail term of 24 months but the judge said he found this “somewhat excessive”.

Lin, who has been banned from owning any animal for a year after his release from jail, had pleaded guilty in October 2024 to three counts of animal cruelty. 

He was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, but Judge Soh had declined to call for a mandatory treatment order in lieu of jail time.

The DPP said that whenever Lin felt frustrated with life, he would go for walks in Ang Mo Kio, looking out for cats to vent his anger. He picked the area as he knew the area had more cats, she said.

At around 3.30am on April 21, 2020, Lin dropped a cat from the 12th floor of Block 572 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3. The cat died on impact.

He disposed of its carcass in a different area not mentioned in court documents. The cat was never found.

About a month later, on May 15, 2020, Lin dangled another cat over the parapet of the eighth floor...