Young man caught harassing stray cat with bicycle apologises over 'misguided fun'

Angered over the casually cruel way an acquaintance treated a stray cat, a woman took to Facebook to take him to task. 

On Monday (Aug 17), Andrea Chan posted a video that depicted her church cell leader using his bicycle to harass a cat by rolling the front wheel to nudge its body.

Captioned with “I love cats” in the Instagram Story, a young man by the name of Julian Lee appeared to enjoy disturbing the cat as his friends can be heard goading him on and laughing. 

According to Chan, the cell leader has a history of expressing his aversion to cats. As a cell member, Chan had heard Lee joking about how he abused cats in the past by throwing an object at one and scaring another innocent feline. 

"If no other members are going to voice up about your wrongdoings, then this isn’t the cell group I wish to be in,” she wrote, adding how she loves animals and that she wants better lives for stray or abandoned animals in the community. 

When confronted on Instagram, he responded that he was “playing only” and claimed that the cat wasn’t injured. 

Chan further expressed her disapproval over Lee's actions, questioning his values as a leader in a church. She also found it unacceptable that the people around Lee were enabling him, even if it was intended as a joke. 

In a Facebook screengrab, the man had previously expressed his wish to slaughter cats en masse in jest.

”I hope this gets shared around to remind others that this act is not acceptable, and you can be charged for this act,” Chan stated. As of writing, her post had already garnered over 4,000 shares. 

‘Misguided fun’ 

Since the post went viral, the man came out to issue a public statement of apology on his personal Facebook account and wanted to assure people that he never intended to hurt the cat. Just a bit of “misguided fun”, says Lee.  

“It was done out of misguided fun. It took this incident to make me realise that my action was wrong, unkind and immature to begin with. I have come to realise how inhumane it was and am deeply remorseful for my actions,” Lee wrote.

“I will not allow this to happen again. I certainly should have been more careful with what I deemed as fun.”

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/julian.lee.37051/posts/10158286318830255[/embed]

He also apologised to Chan for not taking her messages seriously and causing her distress. Admitting that his family members were disappointed in him, Lee expressed regret that his actions were “unbecoming” as a cell group leader and apologised to them as well. 

“I humbly seek your forgiveness. Right now, I will continue to reflect on my own actions.”

AVS intervenes

When queried by AsiaOne, the Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS) assured that they are on the case.

“The AVS, a cluster of the National Parks Board (NParks), has been alerted to and is concerned to learn of the incident in which a man had allegedly tried to run over a cat with his bicycle,” said Jessica Kwok, the Group Director of AVS’ Community Animal Management. 

”We are contacting relevant parties on this matter and are looking into the case.”

Kwok affirmed that the AVS takes all feedback received from the public on animal cruelty seriously and will look into all cases reported. She encouraged members of the public to provide photographic and/or video-graphic evidence when alerting the AVS of any suspected cases. 

ilyas@asiaone.com