A 60-year-old man was arrested on Thursday in Chai Wan on Hong Kong Island for suspected animal abuse after more than 10 turtles were stabbed to death with pencils at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.
At 6pm, the unemployed man was arrested in an apartment in Yee Tsui House, Wan Tsui Estate, Sing Pao reported.
A large number of pencils, four pencil sharpeners and pencil cases were seized in the apartment. The pencils were of the same brand as those that fatally injured the turtles.
During their investigation of the attack, police found a Garden Life Bread bag in the hospital pond. After examining surveillance camera footage, they located the suspect, a hospital patient who had bought the bread at a convenience store in the hospital and gone to the pond.
On October 26, 10 turtles known as red-eared sliders, which had been living in an outdoor pond at the hospital, were stabbed by pencils, and later died of their injuries, Oriental Daily said.
Police are also investigating the suspect’s possible involvement in another turtle-abuse case in the same location on September 20.