An unidentified woman has been tracked down and fined by authorities after pictures and CCTV footage emerged of her throwing five live cats in sacks over a wall into Wat Pho in Bangkok.
The disturbing events unfolded on Sunday evening when a CCTV camera captured images of the woman approaching the exterior walls of the Wat Pho compound.
Dressed in all black and wearing a balaclava to hide her identity, the woman clearly knew she was doing something that was inappropriate and cruel.
She proceeded to throw five sacks, one by one, over the wall and into the temple compound before felling the scene in a pickup truck.
Staff at the temple discovered the bags and the cats inside, all of whom were luckily uninjured and in good health.
After the release of images from the incident and the power of social media, police tracked down the woman and charged her with animal cruelty resulting in a 10,000 baht fine.
The woman told officials that she could no longer afford to feed the cats and decided to give them to the temple as she noticed they take good care of animals.
However, she declined to inform the police about why she chose to hurl them over a wall in sacks rather than enter the temple and give them to the staff inside.
Following the incident, The Voice Foundation, a Bangkok-based NGO, posted a thank you message to everyone who helped locate the woman. It read:
“Thank you to the power of social media. This is the example of abandoning pets and pushing the burden to temples. If you aren’t ready, please don’t adopt a pet. And if you cannot take care of them anymore, you should find a home for them, not abandon them like this.”
The cats are now under the care of the foundation which is finding new, caring homes for all five.
Source: Coconuts
