GEORGE TOWN: The police opened an investigation paper (IP) into the incident where a cat was stuffed in a gunny sack before being thrown into the river and left to die in an incident at Jalan Kota Giam, Jelutong here yesterday.
Timur Laut district police chief ACP Razlam Ab Hamid said police were conducting a follow-up investigation from a police report received regarding the incident.
"Further investigations are underway including tracking the suspect involved and the police have opened an investigation paper under Section 29(1) of the Animal Cruelty Act 2015," he said when contacted by Bernama today.
Earlier, a 66-second long video clip went viral on social media showing several individuals retrieving a gunny sack from the river and finding a dead cat inside believed to have been thrown into the river by a suspect.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Animal Association president, Arie Dwi Andika, said the incident of throwing gunny sacks stuffed with cats into the river was not the first and that his association had received information related to such an incident several times in the past.
Arie said that yesterday at about 8.30 am, a witness saw a man throwing a gunny sack stuffed with a cat into the river and the witness tried to save the cat but found that it had died.
"Following that, the witness, who is also a representative of our association in Penang, lodged a police report and we urged the authorities to conduct a detailed investigation including arresting the suspect involved," he said.
– BERNAMA