Found: Merc-driving Caucasian-looking man who dumped cat in rubbish bin

Ref: Caught on CCTV: Caucasian man dumps live cat into trash bin

SHE had decided to give up one of her family's four cats after the cat kept fighting with its sibling.

So when her husband said that he would take their cat, Scuzzi, to an animal shelter on Tuesday, Madam Hamidah was relieved.

"Animal shelter?"

But that relief turned to stress when she later found out that a video of her husband dumping the cat in a rubbish bin had gone viral online, with netizens labelling him an animal abuser and calling for his arrest.

The New Paper tracked Madam Hamidah down to her Bishan flat yesterday following tip-offs.

The woman, who is in the watch trading business with her husband, 52, declined to reveal her full name, but told us that she "couldn't believe her eyes" when she saw the video.

She said: "I was shocked because Michael, my husband, told me he had dropped Scuzzi off at the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)."

But her husband was caught on closed-circuit TV footage pulling up in his Mercedes-Benz at a veterinary clinic off Whitley Road, then proceeding to empty Scuzzi into a rubbish bin by shaking its carrier vigorously.

Madam Hamidah said her husband of 30 years has suffered from bipolar disorder for many years and "didn't know better".

"He had a relapse eight days ago, and his behaviour has been very unpredictable since," she added.

He was supposed to take their granddaughter Raika, three, to her pre-school in Newton on that particular day.

But at about 10.30am, Mr Michael returned home with an inconsolable Raika, who kept asking for the cat between choked sobs.

Madam Hamidah said: "Raika kept saying, 'Grandpa threw Scuzzi away.' So I reassured her, 'Atuk (grandfather in Malay) didn't throw Scuzzi away. Someone else is taking care of our cat.'"

She said that when she questioned her husband, he insisted that he had "put Scuzzi in a collection bin for animals for adoption".

Madam Hamidah said she does not know why her husband ended up at James Tan Veterinary Centre, where they had previously taken their cats for treatment.

On the cats, Madam Hamidah explained that she had rescued Scuzzi, then just seven days old, its wounded mother and three other kittens in 2007.

The mother cat had been wounded in an accident and had to have her limbs amputated. A friend fostered the injured cat, while she took the kittens in.

She said: "We raised the money for their vet bills and nursed them back to health, so why would we just dump them into some rubbish bin?"

She said she would check her husband into the Institute of Mental Health yesterday evening, as his relapse seemed to have worsened.

Said Madam Hamidah: "I am sorry that this had to happen, and hopefully people will understand.

Meanwhile, Scuzzi is still at the vet clinic where Mr Michael left him.

The cat was rescued only hours after he was dumped, when an employee at the clinic was about to deposit a rubbish bag into the bin.

Thank God cats have nine lives. Hah.

A veterinary assistant for the clinic said that the cat had started drinking but has not been eating on its own, and that clinic staff were feeding it by hand three times daily - the only way they could get it to eat.

ORIGINAL SOURCE

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