Inside an animal abuser's mind: What drives such cruelty

There are 3 categories of offenders and some red flags that signal a potential abuser

- Ang Qing

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.

Q 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.