Indian origin Malaysian man jailed, fined for smuggling puppy into Singapore

Singapore: An Indian origin Malaysian man, who concealed a puppy in a laundry bag while smuggling it into Singapore from Malaysia, was sentenced to eight weeks' jail and fined SGD2,500 on Tuesday.

Mahentharan Ganesan, 43, pleaded guilty to three charges – one count of importing an animal without a licence and two counts of breaching his duty of care as an animal owner, with another charge taken into consideration for his sentencing, the Channel News Asia reported.

On October 20, 2023, Immigration & Checkpoints Authority officers at Tuas checkpoint at a bridge link to southern peninsular Malaysia detected one live puppy concealed in a laundry bag and hidden in the spare tyre compartment of Mahentharan’s vehicle during an inspection.

The court heard that the accused owned a transportation company in Malaysia.

He had borrowed some money from an unknown person, who had offered the accused a job to repay his debt by bringing animals into Singapore illegally from Malaysia.

The accused was initially asked to bring in puppies or kittens from Malaysia to Singapore with his own vehicle.

Initially, he had refused to do so as he was aware this was illegal. However, he eventually agreed to deliver the animals due to his bad financial circumstances.

Later, the unknown person introduced Mahentharan to another man whom he referred to as ‘Mr Dog’.

‘Mr Dog’ informed the accused of the job assignments and instructed him on the process.

Mahentharan would then collect the animals from another party and deliver them to other recipients in Singapore.

The animals would sometimes be in laundry bags or boxes and seemed to be sleepy, according to court documents.

The accused was paid SGD60 in cash for each trip from the recipient, regardless of the number of animals delivered, though he usually delivered between one and three animals per trip.

It is not clear how many assignments the accused had completed in Singapore.

The identities of ‘Mr Dog’ and the man Mahentharan owed money to, as well as where the animals originated from, remain unknown.