Single mum jailed for feeding dog needles

KOTA KINABALU: For feeding her dog 32 sewing needles, a vegetable seller here has to stay one night in jail and pay a RM7,000 fine, in default seven days jail.

Latifah @ Hilda Dusin committed the act on Jan 19 last year after her son was seriously injured in an attack by the dog.

Her elder daughter then informed the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals about the incident, which led to Latifah’s arrest.

Yesterday, the 53-year-old single mother pleaded guilty to feeding needles to the dog, an offence under the Animal Welfare Enactment 2015.

Sessions Court judge Ainul Shahrin Mohamed meted out the sentence after hearing arguments from the prosecutor.

In asking for a light sentence, Latifah said she had done so to protect her children as she said the dog was vicious.

She also said she earned a low income and there was no one to look after her children if she went to jail.

According to the statement of the facts, the black dog had apparently bitten her younger daughter a day before but the girl was not severely injured.

However, after the dog’s attack on her son which seriously injured him, Latifah fed the dog a piece of bread filled with needles and told her elder daughter, who lives in Sandakan, what she did.

The dog survived the ordeal.