Singapore: Man fined for breeding chickens in residential flat for commercial purposes

SINGAPORE (Aug 25): A 50-year-old man was fined S$2,000 (RM6,218)  on Wednesday for illegally breeding more than two dozen chickens in his Pasir Ris flat for commercial purposes, a report by TODAY said.

Eric Woo had disguised the sale of chickens by selling poultry feed to members of his Facebook group.

They had “adopted” chickens he had bred from eggs they supplied as part of the arrangement, the report explained. 

The report highlighted that he pleaded guilty to one charge of maintaining a farm without a licence under the Animals and Birds (Licensing of Farms) Rules.

“Two other charges of keeping more than 10 non-commercial poultry animals in any premises, as well as using his five-room flat for the distribution of chickens without a licence, were taken into consideration for sentencing,” it said.

Back in 2019, TODAY published a report which regarded Woo as one of Singapore’s leading chicken rearers among the poultry-rearing community. 

“He frequently put up hatchlings for “adoption” on the Facebook group he founded, called Fowl Mouthed Family, for a fee. On July 9 last year, NParks officers visited his flat and found 25 chickens kept in two enclosures and a plastic container,” the report said. 

Subsequently, investigations revealed that Woo had formed the group in July 2018 to promote the ownership of and interest in poultry. He grew the total membership to about 1,880.

He collected chicken eggs from members, hatched them, and raised the chickens before letting the members adopt them in exchange for buying two packets of poultry feed at S$39.90 each.

However, they had to return one packet to him to support his breeding programme and use the other packet to feed the chickens they adopted.

The report said that NParks prosecutor Wendy Tan told the court: “In short, the adopters would take home two young chicks and one packet of poultry feed after paying S$79.80 to the accused. The accused admitted that he bought each packet of poultry feed at S$25 from a retailer.”

The report added that for maintaining a farm at his residential premises without a licence, he could have been jailed for up to a year or fined up to S$10,000, or both.

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