Animal cruelty offenders in two separate cases were sentenced at the Armadale Magistrates Court on Friday.
The first of the two cases, presided over by Magistrate Brian Mahon, involved a 28-year-old Wellard woman who left two pet rats for two weeks to perish inside her home without water during a heatwave.
There was food available to the rats, but no water, and one rat appeared to have dried blood around their nose and legs.
During the investigation, the offender said she didn’t own the rats and arrangements had been made for somebody to collect them. However, nobody collected the rats.
In sentencing, Magistrate Mahon said the offender was responsible in law for the rats and fined the offender $4000.
She was also prohibited from being in charge of an animal for two years, except for her son’s dog. She was also ordered to pay $853.70 in costs.
In the second case, a 28-year-old Kenwick woman was fined $3500 and banned from being in charge of an animal for five years after failing to seek vet care for her Jack Russell-terrier, named Goddy, who had sustained life-threatening injuries during a fight with her other dog.
The court heard RSPCA WA inspectors interviewed the woman in August after WA Police officers had removed the injured dog and taken him to a nearby vet for immediate treatment.
The offender advised inspectors Goddy had been in a fight with her other dog and once she broke it up, Goddy would not get up off the ground.
She said she knew he needed treatment for his injuries but ‘just kept checking on him’. She wrapped him in a blanket and he did not move, eat, or drink in the two days between the incident and being removed by police.
A vet at Kenwick Veterinary Hospital said Goddy was suffering from hypothermia, had multiple significant open, dog tooth-sized wounds to the neck and shoulder areas, bruising on his throat, had a dangerously low heart rate of 20 beats per minute, and likely had a brainstem injury.
He was unconscious and unresponsive and in the decompensatory phase of shock due to organ dysfunction and irreversible damage to tissue. He was humanely euthanised as a result of his extensive injuries and unlikelihood of ever returning to normal function.
The offender was also ordered to pay $3000 in costs.
In sentencing, Magistrate Mahon said there was a ‘failure to grasp [Goddy’s] suffering’ and the ‘suffering caused to the dog was very difficult’.
RSPCA WA Inspector Manager Kylie Green said both cases were shocking examples of severe neglect.
“In both cases, the defenceless animals were relying on the people responsible for their care to ensure they were properly looked after but they were drastically let down,” she said.
“Providing something as basic as water in the first instance and taking the Jack Russell to the vet in the second would have prevented unnecessary suffering for these animals.
“The thought of what the rats and Goddy went through is heartbreaking – made even worse by knowing they didn’t have to suffer like they did.”
