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SINGAPORE: When officials from the National Parks Board (NParks) received a tip that someone was selling fighting fish via Telegram and knocked on Muhammad Irfan Khairudin’s door, they found two bearded dragons being kept illegally in his apartment. Ang Mo Kio.
Irfan, 28, was fined S $ 3,000 in court on Wednesday (March 17) for a count of using his home as a pet store to sell 10 game fish, also known as betta, and two counts. of intentionally keeping wildlife without approval.
The court heard that Irfan opened a Telegram account called “Ayam Betta” in early 2019. He posted his fighting fish for sale and sold his first fish for S $ 20 shortly thereafter.
Since then, he has sold 10 fish from his home via Telegram even though he did not have a pet store license.
In April 2020, NParks received comments that someone was selling game fish via Telegram. They visited Irfan’s home in Ang Mo Kio in July 2020 and found two live central bearded dragons in separate tanks on the floor.
Irfan didn’t have the approval to keep them.
The prosecutor requested a fine of S $ 3,000, noting that the charges of intentionally keeping wildlife were new crimes.
Central bearded dragons, a type of lizard, are native to Australia and those seen in Singapore are typically from Johor Bahru and are smuggled, the prosecutor said.
They are not natives of Singapore and can pose a threat if they accidentally escape. He added that the sale of pets is a regulated trade in Singapore and steps must be taken to ensure that they are not raised in unsanitary conditions.
Irfan had nothing to say about the mitigation, but was allowed to pay S $ 1,000 up front and the remainder at the end of next month.
For using his home as a pet store to sell fish, he could have been fined up to S $ 5,000. For intentionally keeping wildlife, he could have been jailed for up to six months, fined up to S $ 10,000, or both.
