Written answer by Ministry of National Development on the number of animal cruelty and welfare cases it has investigated
Sep 9, 2024
Question No: 6092
Question by: Ms He Ting Ru
To ask the Minister for National Development in each year of the last five years (a) how many animal cruelty and welfare cases has the Ministry (i) investigated and (ii) taken enforcement actions on; (b) what is the breakdown of the cases by types of offence; and (c) what is the breakdown of the cases by types of animal.
Answer:
From 2019 to 2023, NParks investigated an average of about 1,200 cases of alleged animal cruelty and welfare cases annually. Majority of the cases involved dogs and cats. Among the cases investigated, an average of 50 cases resulted in enforcement against the offender, such as the issuance of warning letter, composition fine, or court prosecution. The annual breakdown is shown in Table 1.
The remaining cases resulted in no further enforcement action due to a lack of evidence or were unrelated to cruelty and welfare. Such cases were often associated with disputes or disamenities caused by pets or community animals, or deaths of community animals due to unrelated reasons such as accidental falls from height.
Table 1: Breakdown of animal cruelty and welfare-related cases reported to NParks from 2019 to 2023
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|
| 1) Cases investigated on animal cruelty | 409 | 394 | 360 | 357 | 296 |
| a) Cases with enforcement actions* taken on animal cruelty | 18 | 23 | 24 | 7 | 8 |
| 2) Cases investigated on failure in duty of care | 801 | 788 | 912 | 999 | 834 |
| a) Cases with enforcement actions* taken on failure in duty of care | 46 | 52 | 53 | 21 | 7 |
* Enforcement action refers to the issuance of a warning letter, a composition fine, or to court prosecution. Investigations for some cases are ongoing and have not been included in the count.