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Instagram videos of dying cat allegedly fed alcohol prompt online furor, police investigation
Police could charge the alleged perpetrators under articles 302 and 406 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on animal abuse. The articles carry a maximum jail sentence of nine months upon conviction.
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Activists display a poster during a protest outside the Environment and Forestry Ministry in August 2016. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
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mages of a dying cat allegedly being force-fed an alcoholic drink that made the rounds of social media recently have created a furor among netizens, prompting police to investigate the case.
The series of photos and videos were uploaded onto the Instagram account of a university student and resident of Tulungagung, East Java, identified as Ahmad Azzam with the handle @azzam_cancel, on Wednesday.
The videos showed the dying Persian cat weakly wriggling while being force-fed several times with what was believed to be an alcoholic drink from Bekonang, Sukoharjo, Central Java, known as ciu Bekonang. According to some references, the alcohol content of ciu ranges from 25 to 70 percent.
Accompanying the graphic videos were captions that only added fuel to the public condemnation, such as: "50% ciu bekonang has entered its blood. Destroying half of its brain's nervous system...", "Hope you won't rest in peace, keep holding grudges on me" and "Thanks to you I got to make these status updates".
Activists from Animal Defenders Indonesia and dozens of others from animal-loving communities in Tulungagung, Kediri in East Java and Yogyakarta reported the case to the Tulungagung Police on Friday, with the latter saying they would soon have an autopsy performed on the dead feline.
"We've recovered the cat's remains from its grave and we will run an autopsy on it to determine the cause of its death. We need experts to know whether there is indeed ciu in the cat's body," the head of Tulungagung Police's criminal investigation department, Adj. Comr. Hendi Septiadi, said on Friday.
Hendi said the police had questioned Azzam, who is a student of a university in Yogyakarta.
