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SINGAPORE – In May, four gruesome cat deaths in the neighbourhoods of Yishun, Punggol and Tampines occurred within a month, stoking fears that a killer was on the loose.
While the authorities have since attributed three of these deaths to road accidents instead of deliberate acts of cruelty, the string of cases re-ignited calls for Singapore to toughen its laws and enforcement against animal abuse.
Some have even suggested heavier penalties like mandatory jail time and caning.
But can such stiff punishment deter a person bent on hurting animals?
On May 27, I sat down with psychiatrist Lim Boon Leng and criminal lawyer Josephus Tan to unpack these dark impulses and how society can help to curb them.
Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.
Why would anyone want to harm animals?
Dr Lim: It’s quite important to understand that not everyone who is an animal abuser has a mental illness. A lot of people do it out of malice, anger or boredom, or they are just thrill-seeking. This can come from a place of unresolved trauma or they are displacing their anger.
There are three categories of people:
The first are impulse abusers who lash out because of their poor ability to regulate emotions.
The second are neglectful abusers. I suspect that most animal abusers fall within this group. They fail to care for pets due to ignorance and indifference.
The last group is the sadistic abuser, which I think accounts for a minority of cases. This is the group that we tend to worry about because they really derive pleasure or a sense of control from inflicting pain.
Individuals with antisocial personality disorder, commonly known as psychopaths, are more likely to resort to animal cruelty. They are typically quite deceitful.
They are also quite emotionally distant. Therefore, if they inflict pain on animals or other people, they do not have empathy.
Are there any red flags that indicate a person is more likely to abuse animals?
Dr Lim: History is the best way to predict the future. So when children or adolescents harm pets, stray animals or even insects, when there are repeated incidents – these are very big warning signs.
Then there are people who show very little empathy towards other human beings and animals. They have this in...
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