“Changing times require a changing mindset, your honour, and we ask that this court seriously consider increasing the sentence,” he said.
He argued against the defence’s point that Lin was slated to begin home detention soon, saying that this was not a bar to imposing what should be an appropriate sentence.
Lin sat in the dock in a purple prison outfit, listening solemnly to proceedings.
Justice Vincent Hoong asked the prosecution if the type of animal being abused should have any bearing on the sentence, but Mr Isaac Tan said the degree and manner of suffering was what is important instead.
“It’s going to be very hard to say if a dog was abused it warrants a higher sentence versus a fish being abused,” he said.
Defence lawyer Mr Azri Imran Tan said the defence took the position that the total sentence of 14 months was “fair and just”, but said the district judge had erred by running three sentences consecutively.
He asked for no more than two sentences to be run consecutively, and no more than 14 months’ jail.
“My client’s actions are reprehensible. We do not wish to downplay his actions whatsoever,” said Mr Azri Imran Tan.
“I think it’s also accepted between parties that my client’s actions have stirred up significant emotional reactions and outcry from the public.”
The defence lawyer said this appeal “should not turn on emotional gravitas or what the public is interested in or feels”.
Both the prosecution and defence referred to the case of Yeo Poh Kwee, who received the maximum jail term under current law of 18 months for animal cruelty.
He had run down from the 20th floor of an HDB block with his dog attached to him on a leash and left the bleeding dog to die.
Mr Azri Imran Tan asked the court: “How is dropping cats from heights and slamming a cat against a wall, even if it’s vicious and I think terrible, comparable with an act of running with a dog with a leash down 19 floors of steps at speed, hitting the dog over and over till it dies, leaving gory bloodstains on the wall?”
He compared it with dangerous driving – while running a red light was “bad”, it was “certainly different” from driving against traffic and knocking against other vehicles, said the lawyer.
“My client’s psychiatric condition affected his ability to control his impulses. His behaviour was out of character,” said Mr Azri Imran Tan.
In response, the prosecutor said there were two dogs in the Yeo Poh Kwee case.
“There are five cats here,” he said. By the fifth offence, Lin was no longer belabouring under his mental condition.
“I think the fifth offence exposes his cruelty,” said the prosecutor.
