SINGAPORE - A man was fined $5,000 on Monday for not taking a maggot-infested wounded dog to a veterinarian for treatment.

This is despite observing the wound to be necrotic and that the dog's condition was not improving.

Yong Chin Hon, a vegetable farmer, admitted to causing unnecessary suffering to a male cross-breed brown coloured dog on his farm in Lim Chu Kang.

On August 17 2011, SPCA received a tip off alerting them to a dog with a large maggot-infested wound on its head that was kept at 31 Lim Chu Kang Lane 1.

When the SPCA officers arrived at the farm at about 7pm the same day, they saw that the wound was extensive and ran along the dog's spine.

Yong, 37, said the dog was a stray and wandered onto his farm about three to four months before August 17, 2011.

Deciding to keep the dog, Yong built a shelter for it as it was chasing the cats in his farm and destroying his crops.

He chained the dog in the shelter with a metal chain for three months while feeding it leftover food.

Yong claims he only noticed the open wound on the neck of the dog about two weeks before August 17.

Court documents said that Yong merely washed the wound with Dettol despite observing the wound to be necrotic and infested with maggots.

Investigations showed that he did not take the dog to a veterinarian although the dog's condition did not improve.

Yong believed that the wound should heal itself eventually.

SPCA officers took the dog to the Animal Clinic at Clementi where it was put down.

Yong could have been fined up to $10,000 and/or jailed for up to 12 months.

dassa@sph.com.sg