You might have seen some stories regarding Platinium Dogs Club (PDC) on your timeline.

The entire story has run for more than two weeks, so you might be a bit overwhelmed and confused.

Here's a succinct explainer on what happened, that will hopefully help you make sense of things.

Origins

There was quite a bit of discontent, all the way back in Dec. 20, when what appeared to be organic feelings of anger at the boarding house, started popping up on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/sookyee.loo/posts/10216138539949797The first really viral complaint though, mainly due to the severity of the allegation, came from Joanne Png.

Her Jack Russell, QQ, died while under the care of PDC.

Png also mentioned that the boarder did not reach out to Png’s emergency contact immediately when QQ’s condition deteriorated at the boarding house.

Here were QQ's last moments.

This set off a firestorm of anger, which would get even worse as more revelations about PDC's practices came to light.

Death and rescue

We'll just get possibly the most terrible revelation out of the way.

According to Yahoo News, at least three dogs had been taken from the house to be cremated.

That fact was reiterated on Reddit by Elaine Mao's (we'll get to her in a bit) fiancé:

What you read is accurate, she (PDC's owner) opted for mass cremations on those that died and provided only the name of the dog, no breed and I don’t believe the microchips were scanned, it’s truly heartbreaking.

Amidst all this, the police got involved.

Along with personnel from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), as they conducted a raid on PDC's premises, at 7 Galistan Avenue.

It's important to clarify the circumstances for the raid as well.

Although it was tangentially related to the mistreatment of the dogs, the crux of the investigation came about after the owner of the house, who rented it out to PDC, found out that it was being used to board dogs.

The raid resulted in the rescue of 18 dogs and a rabbit, all apparently in less-than-ideal conditions.

Which should have somewhat dulled the outrage, except for one unfortunate fact.

One of the dogs, Prince, was still unaccounted for.

Here he is.

It is not known when Prince went missing from the boarding house, but he was not found with the other dogs.

The owners, Mao and her fiancé (from earlier), apparently tried reaching out to PDC's owner multiple times, but communications ended abruptly.

This combination of helplessness felt by the victims, outrage from onlookers, and perceived apathy from the PDC owner all culminated in the events of Jan. 2, 2019.

Confrontation

This day was full of moving parts.

A group of people had apparently gathered around Galistan Avenue.

While it isn't clear what time they had gathered, the police were alerted to a case of people obstructing the driveway at around 4.35pm.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force were alerted to a road accident at around 4.52pm.

The aforementioned accident involved a 40-year-old man, who was part of the group that gathered around the bungalow.

He was taken to the hospital in a conscious state.

All this commotion was punctuated by a heart-wrenching exchange between Mao, and the lady purported to be the owner of PDC.

https://www.facebook.com/derrick.tan.142/videos/10156055468343443/

The exchange yielded no visible reaction, nor words, from the alleged PDC boss.

She then left the scene at around 7pm, waving to the crowd as she did so.

Leaving Mao and her fiancé with more questions than answers.

What now?

AVA is currently investigating PDC and the alleged cases of abuse.

Mao's fiancé himself has come out to express hope that Prince can be found, and his belief, based on conversations with the pet crematorium, that Prince is still alive.

It is to be said that welfare measures are already part of Singapore law, thanks to the Animals and Birds (Amendment) Act 2014.

But like with all laws, a vigilant populace aware and invested in the regulations might be just as important as said laws.

Which brings us to the issue of change, and the willingness to see it through.

In less than half a day, over 20,000 people have signed a petition seeking stiffer punishment for animal-abusers in the future.

Which is great, and you can sign here if you wish, although do take note, this is not a fundraising effort, so any pop-up that implores you to donate money is by Change.org, and not the petition itself.

Here is the missing poster for Prince.

And here is a video of him barking, in case it helps.

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Let's hope he's found soon.

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