<Reader Contribution>
We are taking the step of posting this matter on FB as our last resort after waiting for the police to take action for more than a month. To date, no updates have been given and will be given according to them. We spoke with SPCA and understood that they do not have the right to prosecute but has advised us to at least get the police to issue a warning letter to the driver for careless driving like another similar case which took place in May 2015 whereby a stray dog was also knocked down and killed (Ref: TP/IP/22843/2015(136410/SR). However, the investigation officer (IO) of our case has informed us that she will not even do that.
Since no legal action can be taken against him, we can only hope that through Facebook more people will recognise this guy and when he knows that he is being watched, he will think twice to kill another dog and no longer capable of being a threat to the safety of our homeless dogs. Please share this with any dog feeders and lovers you know of.
On 27 November at 6.50pm, one of our feeders saw a lorry intentionally accelerating toward the direction of a small puppy that was walking on the side of an industrial street. When the lorry sped past the pup, it yelped in pain. Rushing over, we found the pup limping and took it to the vet. The feeder took a photo of this lorry for record purpose hoping that it was just an one-off incident. This lorry comes daily to this same street to pick workers up from the dormitory. We usually spot him between 630pm and 930pm. However, we do not know where the actual work site of these workers is and where he ferries them to but we believe that it should be another industrial or construction place whereby stray dogs are also present. The name of the company is Willy Design & Engineering Pte Ltd..
On 4 December 2015 at 8.05 pm. along the same industrial street, a young dog was also standing on the side of the road with its back facing the direction of oncoming traffic. Two trucks slowed down and steered their vehicle away from the dog to avoid hitting it as they saw that the dog did not see them coming. However this same lorry driver stayed on the colliding path with the dog. As his lorry drew nearer, the driver did not slow down or attempt to steer away. One of the feeders waved at him to signal him to move away from the dog. But to our shock we heard the sound of the engine being accelerated toward the dog instead. He immediately knocked the dog down but yet did not stop at that. His lorry ran right over the poor dog from the front wheels to the back wheels. Think for a moment … if a lorry was driving within the speed limit of a 1 lane street it would have been able to stop immediately after hitting the dog at the front of his lorry. However in this case, the lorry only came to a halt after 10 meters from where the dog was. .
We ran toward the dog as it laid there motionless. It was in shock and vomiting blood out of its mouth. The driver sat inside the lorry without rendering aid. The workers who were ferried on the back of the lorry also continued to remain on the lorry. They were unmoved by what had happened and was not surprised at all. They stared at us with an emotionless look that says "what is the big deal?"
The dog was rushed to emergency vet at Mt Pleasant Whitley but was already dead by the time we arrived. The vet's examination says the dog died of internal injuries. We took a death certificate from the vet and proceeded to call SPCA. They advised us to make a police report.
We spent the next one hour at the police station watching the poor police officer making countless calls and being pushed from one supervisor to another over the phone whether or not to classify this case as a NP299 or NP168. In the end he finally got one supervisor who was willing to let him register the case under NP299. However the case was later pushed to the Traffic Police under NP168.
We decided to get the other feeder who witnessed the earlier incident on the 27th of November to make a police report too. We explained that the action of this man rendered him a daily threat to any street dogs and hope that they can expedite on the investigation.
So there were 2 reports made about the same driver with 2 eyewitnesses.
However these are the responses from the different investigation officers we spoke to from the police department:
1) The dog is a stray dog (not a owned dog) so no action can be taken.
2) We cannot prove that he is speeding and intentionally run over the dog unless you have video proof..
3) They will not regard both cases as linked because 1 case is classified under Traffic Police and the other is not. So it will be handled by different officer and thus not be brought together as related even though it is about the same vehicle and driver.
4) The police may or may not speak to the driver and it will take many months to close this case as there are many other cases for them to work on.
5) We will not be told of the outcome of the investigation because we are not the direct victims of the incident.
<Source: MercyLight Adoption>