“IT’S JUST A DOG, FU*K YOU!”: CASE UPDATE & CAR REGISTRATION REVEALED

UPDATE: I’m updating this post because after reading the comments on both Facebook and the forums, I realised that some people were misinterpreting what I’m saying. What I wrote previously was posted in a hurry because the volunteers and I wanted to track down the driver quickly. I’m keeping what I wrote previously below for anybody’s reference. Before I go into the details, I would like to clarify that “Yang Yang” and “Sayang” refer to the same dog- different volunteers simply refer to him differently out of habit. For simplicity I will call him Yang.

I’ve been volunteering at Animal Lovers League (ALL) for almost 4 years now. I coordinate volunteering activities (such as assigning dogs to their walkers) and I also help with the rehabilitation of dogs and some adoption activities. ALL is extremely strict when it comes to the safety of its dogs, and both new and experienced volunteers are reminded repeatedly to always keep the dogs we are walking leashed at all times, and to always close the gates behind us when entering and leaving the shelter. ALL is located at Pasir Ris Farmway where the roads are generally quiet with few vehicles, and on weekends you will see plenty of volunteers from various shelters walking their dogs.

Every Sunday morning, a group of about 12-15 volunteers and I are at the shelter to walk and bathe the dogs and to clean the compound. The dogs at the shelter are usually extremely excited and happy, especially on weekends because they get to see and spend time with the most number of volunteers on these two days. Yang had been extremely excited to see the volunteers and couldn’t wait to go out. He had somehow sneaked out without our knowledge but the volunteers who were outside then had almost immediately spotted him and tried to get him back.

At around 10.30AM, I was walking out of the kennels with a dog when I heard someone shouting outside. Standing at the entrance to the kennels was another volunteer, C, and she frantically told me what had happened. She was out walking a dog when a driver had run over Yang. Yang had been rolled over by the wheel and the mud guard also hit him several times because the driver didn’t stop. According to Perle, the driver had slowed down, but still ran over Yang. The driver only stopped when she and some of the other volunteers who were present ran after her car. C didn’t want to scare the driver off, and told the driver very nicely that she had to stop and help. The driver immediately said, “No, no, not my fault!”

I’ve known C for many years and she’s indeed a very nice and passive person. “I’m not saying it’s your fault, but could you please come out and help us?” she continued, trying to calm the driver down so that she wouldn’t drive off.

At this point, the driver said, “It’s just a dog, fuck you.” Then, she drove off.

Perle, who was nearby, had taken the photos. As the car was already driving away and was not stationary, we weren’t able to get a photo of the driver’s face.

Several of the volunteers present dropped what they had been doing and went to look for Yang who was last seen running into a construction site to hide. He bolted when he was found and ran off in another direction to hide in some bushes. Mark, Jezlyn and I then went in that direction with our dogs, calling out to Yang, stopping when we heard a dog whimpering. Not long later, Ah Bee, a volunteer whom Yang trusts a lot, managed to get him out of the bushes and brought him back to the shelter. Yang has been examined by the vet and so far, no internal injuries have been found. The vet suspects that he might have injured his head, and they are still monitoring him for signs of head injuries.

The most despicable part of this whole incident is that the driver’s son has called ALL’s owner with an anonymous number to defend his mother. He self-righteously proclaimed that she had stepped out of her car to check on Yang. This is an absolute lie, insinuating that all the witnesses present were lying, as she clearly hadn’t; the entire situation was witnessed by the volunteers and a few cyclists present during the incident.

As long-time volunteers of ALL, we are all very concerned about Yang and his well-being. We also want to raise awareness of the fact that drivers cannot simply run over any animal they see, stray or not, and not stop to render their assistance. We are trying not to speculate if the driver had intentionally run over Yang despite how the incident played out, but it remains a fact that she had not stopped to render her assistance and that in itself is a crime.

Please help us find this woman. If anybody has any information, please let us know.