PETALING JAYA: Police have classified the death of senior citizen Huang Yunhong in Bentong, Pahang, who was trying to protect his pet dog from municipal dog-catchers, as “sudden death”.
Bentong district police chief Zaiham Kahar said in a statement that the victim was taken to the Bentong Hospital for an autopsy.
“The autopsy’s result found that the cause of death was ‘respiratory arrest secondary to acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease’.
“The case has been classified as sudden death,” said Zaiham.
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His daughter had also lodged a report with the police over the incident on the same day.
Sin Chew reported that Huang collapsed while trying to stop two dog-catchers from nabbing his pet dog that he had raised for many years.
The Chinese language news outlet quoted one of Huang’s neighbours, known as Ah Xing, as saying one of the officers tried to take the dog away.
This prompted Huang to hold onto the catch pole to prevent the officer from leaving.
“I asked the officer to let go of the pole to prevent Huang from falling, but he did not listen,” Ah Xing said.
“During the struggle, Huang suddenly collapsed and fell into a drain. I tried to help him but, unfortunately, he died a few minutes later.”
He said the officers immediately called for an ambulance and the medical personnel later confirmed that Huang had died.
He said Huang lived alone with his dog as his children were staying in Kuala Lumpur.
FMT has reached out to the Bentong municipal council for comment.
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