Mackay animal neglect and abuse rampant as 400 cases reported in 12 months
Some of Queensland’s most shocking animal neglect and abuse cases were committed across the Mackay district from torture to negligence. Warning: Graphic content
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From horrific acts of torture, to shocking cruelty and vile neglect, the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday has an abhorrent history of animal abuse.
And now tough new penalties will be applied to those who commit aggravated breaches of their duty of care to animals under updated animal welfare laws.
Over 12 months, the number of animal abuse complaints to the RSPCA jumped from 389 in 2020 to 403 in 2021.
The most common issues included tethered animals, dogs in cars and unwanted litters dumped.
That averages to more than one report per day.
And while neglect, deliberate animal cruelty or abuse did occur, RSPCA Queensland spokeswoman Emma Lagoon said it was “far less” common than general animal neglect and welfare complaints.
See our list of animal neglect and abuse cases across the Mackay district below.
Across Mackay there were a number of suburbs where neglect and abuse complaints increased over 12 months.
Beaconsfield’s figures doubled from 10 to 21, South Mackay jumped from 26 to 36, Andergrove rose from 39 to 45 and Sarina increased from 48 to 55.
But Ms Lagoon said there were also some notable decreases.
Slade Point reduced 26 complaints in 2020 to 15 in 2021 and West Mackay from 30 to 11.
In the Whitsunday area, Bowen animal abuse reports dropped from 77 complaints in 2020 to 56 in 2021.
Ms Lagoon said Moranbah also had a similar trend with welfare complaints decreasing from 37 to 15 over 12 months.
She said the most common issues in the Mackay region included animals left tethered, animals without shelter, dogs left in cars and abandoned puppies from unwanted litters.
“Unfortunately, dogs left tied up in backyards is common,” Ms Lagoon said.
“Leaving pets tethered is a risk to their health as they can get tangled and cause themselves injuries, die if unable to access shade or water, and develop long-term behaviour issues as they aren’t able to express their normal behaviours.”
For the first time in more than two decades legislation has been introduced to update the Animal Care and Protection Act.
“Under our proposed amendments people convicted of aggravated breaches of duty of care to animals face up to three years in jail or maximum fines of more than $275,000,” Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Mark Furner said.
This comes as more than 2300 people had their say in relation to a review of the state’s animal welfare laws.
The amendments include a new offence for aggravated breaches of the duty of care, which carry a maximum penalty of more than $275,000 or three years jail, a requirement for dogs to be restrained on vehicles – working dogs are exempt and prohibition of the use and possession of pronged dog collars.
There is also clarification of some inspector powers regarding entry and compliance with animal welfare directions and the scientific use of animals.
A new framework for cattle spaying and pregnancy testing by lay persons has also been introduced.
The proposed amendments will also include some legislative changes recommended by the Inquiry into animal cruelty in the management of retired Thoroughbred and Standardbred horses in Queensland.
Ms Lagoon said the RSPCA would love to see more homes with secure fences “so pets can be safe and happy”.
“Pet owners need to also understand that shelter is essential for all pets and they need access to shade and ample freshwater, not just one tree in a yard or a tiny dog kennel in the full sun,” she said.
“Every pet owner has a duty of care towards their animals and that includes providing appropriate food, water, shelter and medical treatment just to name a few.”
Ms Lagoon urged anyone who needed help with an animal to reach out for help before it was “too late”.
“While it is a mixed bag with what we see at the RSPCA and very suburb specific if animal welfare concerns increase or decrease year on year, we are always thankful that the community knows to contact us if they have a concern,” she said.
Anyone with an animal welfare concern should report it directly to the RSPCA by phoning 1300 264 625.
15 shocking animal cruelty or neglect cases across the Mackay district
MACKAY
Basil the cat cruelly butchered
A Mount Pleasant family was horrified after their pet cat was butchered and dumped on nearby school grounds.
In early November 2008, Basil‘s gruesome and bloodied remains were found on the Northview State Primary School oval, discovered by students two days after he had escaped the family home.
An autopsy revealed people had killed the four-year-old feline deliberately, not another animal. Basil, who was described as a loveable and friendly cat, had been dismembered, with the damage labelled “controlled and calculated”.
At the time, the family offered a $500 reward to find the sadistic killer. Days later, the owner of Peanut boosted the reward to $1000 by offering another $500 for information leading to the convictions of Basil’s killers.
Numerous concerned community members also pledged various amounts with the reward jumping to $5600 at one point.
Four-month-old pup’s eyes glued shut
The tragic plight of a King Charles cocker spaniel-cross affectionately named “Sticky” touched hearts across Mackay.
Someone had cruelly glued the four-month-old pup’s eyes shut.
It took Mackay vet Holly Goldring 45 minutes to cut through the glue so the little dog could open his eyes again.
He was lucky to be alive. Dr Goldring said the dog had also suffered what appeared to be chemical-like burns.
The pup was taken to the vet after two people called police to say they had seen a man abusing it near a walking track on Binnington Esplanade in mid-September 2010.
It is alleged the two people saw the dog being thrown, kicked and dragged along the path and punched repeatedly.
As a result, a prison parolee pleaded guilty to unlawfully injuring a dog and breaching his duty of care to an animal by not providing veterinary care. He was fined $1500 and banned from owning a dog for five years.
Mackay Magistrates Court heard he kicked, dropped and slapped the little pup. However, someone else was allegedly responsible for gluing Sticky‘s eyes shut.
Father of seven behind horror animal negligence case
A father of seven left his severely injured and pregnant dog crammed in a small cage – her rotting wound was wrapped with a dirty cloth covered in flies and maggots.
In a cage next to her were two other dogs shoved in the small space only designed for one.
Magistrate James Morton slammed Edward Charles Fewquandie for his “miserable” failings as a dog owner and banned the unemployed father from owning any animal for three years.
“You failed dismally … these dogs would have been in sheer misery,” Mr Morton said.
“One had to have its leg cut off.
The dogs had been there for days with no food or water before RSPCA inspectors were called and seized the animals on April 5, 2020.
The injured dog, named Ziggy, had to be lifted out of the cage, which had no bedding, food or water “and was covered in dog faeces and urine”.
The two other dogs, Xena and Marley, were also in a filthy cage with no bedding and with minimal water.
Fewquandie pleaded guilty to three counts of animal negligence and other charges.
He was fined $2000, ordered to pay RSPCA costs totalling $2925.15 and was banned from owning any animal for three years.
Cat shot with a .22 calibre rifle
A beloved family cat had to have her leg amputated after she was shot with a .22 rifle.
Eight-year-old Missy rarely wandered out of her Andergrove home territory and her owner was shocked to find the little black and white cat grievously injured in June 2009.
She was near death and her leg had to be removed because the bullet had shattered her left elbow joint beyond repair.
Man cops huge fine for ‘silly and stupid’ animal cruelty
A man has been fined $8000 for a shocking act of animal cruelty against his partner’s dog.
Magistrate Damien Dwyer described Troy Anthony Riggs’s behaviour as “silly and stupid”.
He said Riggs, 46, was at home drinking grog when he began antagonising the dog at a South Mackay unit.
“For no reason, it was completely gratuitous, you picked up that dog and threw it over the front balcony,” he said on Friday.
“You then grabbed a knife and went down towards that dog.
“Fortunately the dog had enough sense to run away so at least no injury was sustained to that dog.”
The dog fell three metres. Riggs pleaded guilty to one count of animal cruelty.
He as fined $8000 and a conviction was recorded
Border collie pup shot
The owners of a border collie named Surri were shocked to find their 12-month-old pup had been shot with a .22 rifle.
The couple had just moved to their Ooralea home five days before the incident occurred in March 2011.
They believe Surri may have escaped under the fence.
The bullet shattered her left femur and a metal plate had to be inserted to reconstruct her broken leg.
Dog shot with a bow and arrow
Eight-month-old Tia’s life was cut short when she was shot with a bow and arrow in a shocking case of animal cruelty in a North Mackay suburban street.
The American Staffy-bulldog cross survived the initial attack but sadly died shortly after surgery because of the extent of her injuries.
Tia was found four doors from her home in a front yard in April 2011 after an arrow when straight through her chest, puncturing a lung and hitting some of the main arteries in the heart.
The weapon was not found, there was just an entry and exit wound.
Her owner, who was not home at the time, was devastated by her death.
Dog left to suffer severe broken leg
Leila, a beautiful rottweiler, was left to suffer with a leg to severely broken it later had to be amputated by vets.
It is unknown how the 18-month-old dog’s leg was broken in June 2011, but it was several days before she received medical treatment.
The area where the bone had come through her left hind leg had scabbed over.
Her injury was so bad that veterinarians had no choice but to remove the leg, which had multiple fractures to the point it was able to bend back on her.
Leila also had fleas and was undernourished, with her spine and hip bones protruding.
As a result a woman was charged with breaching a duty of care to a pet by failing to provide medical assistance – she claimed she did not have money to pay for treatment or petrol to drive the dog to help.
Eventually, the woman sent the dog back to its former owner, who arranged assistance.
She was ordered to complete 67 hours of unpaid community service and was banned from owning a dog for 18 months.
It was revealed the tragic story of Leila had links to another shocking animal cruelty case – she was formerly owned by the man convicted of animal negligence against Sticky, the pup whose eyes were glued shut.
Dog basher escapes jail term over sickening attack
A man who viciously bashed his sister’s dog during an ice comedown fled from Mackay courthouse after avoiding a jail term.
“The footage is sickening to watch,” Barrister Scott McLennan, acting for the RSPCA, said after playing a clip of the vile attack for Mackay Magistrates Court.
The video shows Andrew Coleman repeatedly punching a bull Arab cross named Jaboo by the side of Green St in North Mackay on February 13, 2019.
“The attack on Jaboo in my submission was protracted, it was callous and it was cruel,” Mr McLennan said.
“Jaboo was repeatedly elbowed and punched to the head and body and finally thrown by its neck.”
Acting Magistrate Ron Muirhead disregarded submissions Coleman had acted out after Jaboo had attacked a cat.
Coleman pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and was given 18 months probation and 100 hours community service to be completed in six months.
A conviction was recorded and he is also banned from owning an animal for three years.
SARINA
Goat slaughtered, head left on pole
In a brutal act of animal cruelty, a pregnant goat was decapitated at the Sarina Rural Skills Centre, leaving its high school student carers devastated.
Its head was placed on top of a nearby fence pole.
The body of the two-year-old goat was discovered in a rear paddock in the agricultural unit in late March 2009 with the shocking offence happening in a one-hour window in the afternoon.
One of her legs had also been stabbed several times.
MOUNT OSSA
15 puppies left to die
A Pioneer Valley resident was absolutely horrified to find 15 puppies stuffed inside a garbage bag on a creek bed at Mount Ossa.
Heartbreakingly, only three survived the ordeal.
When the garbage bag was found in September 2007, it was half-submerged in crocodile-infested waters.
As a result, 12 dogs drowned before they were rescued.
Their rescuer had been fishing at a nearby creek when he heard something crying and came across the doomed pups.
After he buried the ones that did not survive, he nursed the three back to health over a number of weeks before taking them to a vet.
“It’s just disgusting,” he told the Daily Mercury at the time.
“I heard something like whimpering, I shone the torch near the water and I found them.
“Half the bag was in the water and about half was on dry land – they had all been wet.”
MORANBAH
The torture and death of a puppy named Peanut
It was considered one of the worst cases of animal cruelty in Australian history.
The horrifying mutilation and death of a seven-month-old puppy named Peanut at Moranbah in October 2008 made national headlines.
His sadistic killers were heard laughing in the background as they videotaped their cruel and callous torture on a mobile phone.
When the vile details were read aloud in Mackay District Court, people in the public gallery wept.
Two friends kidnapped Peanut in revenge after one had a falling out with the dog’s owner.
The pair then mutilated, dismembered and decapitated the little fox terrier in a park behind the Moranbah rodeo grounds.
The actual details are shocking.
Prosecutor David Morters at the time said, by looking at the video: “It is quite clear that both (the) co-accused are enthusiastic about their actions. They are laughing and making comments.
“It is also clear in the video that the dog is in excruciating pain.”
One of the two was given the maximum sentences for killing an animal – three years jail – and was released after serving 12 months. Judge Michael Shanahan ordered the videotapes be destroyed.
CONVICTIONS NOT RECORDED
MACKAY
‘Skinny as a rake’: Animal ban over ‘appalling’ negligence
Harrowing images capture the “appalling” condition of a family pet prompting a magistrate to hand the Mackay couple responsible the maximum ban for owning any animal.
The Great Dane cross – named Munster – was so skinny when the RSPCA seized him that his spine and ribs were visibly poking through his skin.
Magistrate James Morton said the North Mackay pair – Matthew Thomas Wellington and Theresa Louise Delaney – had failed “dismally” in their care.
Mackay Magistrates Court heard Wellington was Munster’s owner, but his fiancee Delaney was also responsible for the dog.
Wellington said he got Munster for free when he was six weeks old from a place at North Mackay in August 2019 that he said, “wasn’t very healthy”.
“And you cast another miserable environment on him,” Mr Morton said, as he told the 25 year old he should be ashamed of himself and made the couple look at the “appalling” images of Munster.
“(He’s) skinny as a rake … (you can) just about see every bone on him.”
RSPCA inspectors received a report on March 3, 2020 that Munster was so skinny his ribs and hip bones were showing.
He was chained up without access to shelter and there was a bowl, which did not appear to contain any water.
Both pleaded guilty to breaching duty of care in that they failed to get appropriate treatment for Munster.
Mr Morton fined each of them $2000 and ordered them each to also pay $110.85 in vet costs and $853.60 in professional costs.
Wellington and Delaney were banned from owning any animal for five years. Convictions were not recorded.
AIRLIE BEACH
Horrifying video shows man punching possum
A shocking case of animal cruelty went viral online after a man was filmed repeatedly punching a possum in Airlie Beach.
The horrifying video, which a woman put on Snapchat, shows a group rip the defenceless possum from a tree near a balcony, before gripping it by the tail.
As the possum hung upside down, people can be seen repeatedly punching its stomach and head.
The group laughs before a man holds the possum over the balcony rail.
Two men – Chatmongkol Norna, 19, and Connor Anthony Hard, 18, were charged and appeared in Proserpine Magistrates Court. Both pleaded guilty to animal cruelty.
The court heard Norna and Hard had been drinking since that afternoon at their Cannonvale unit on June 21, 2019, when Norna grabbed a possum by its tail from a nearby tree about 10.30pm and proceeded to punch the possum three times, while Hard participated with a single punch.
Norna then swung the possum by its tail before forcibly throwing the possum over the balcony.
The court heard the attack on the possum was a deliberate act of violence.
Both men served nine months’ probation with no convictions recorded.
MIDDLEMOUNT
Coal miner cops hefty fine over boozy, ‘perverse’ golf club goose kill
A “perverse” goose killer who ran down the defenceless bird for his own amusement during a boozy game of golf with mates has been slapped with a huge fine.
What happened next was also disturbing – someone else in the group arranged the dead goose on a seat on the golf buggy beside a beer bottle and posted a video on Snapchat.
Kyle Thomas Poulsen, 20, faced up to a $275,700 fine or three years jail after pleading guilty to animal cruelty at Middlemount Golf and Country Club on January 6, 2021.
“Deliberately driving into a flock of geese and killing one and then the behaviour that followed is more disturbing,” prosecutor Harry Coburn told Mackay Magistrates Court.
Mr Coburn argued the Bowen Basin coal miner was “deriving amusement from the killing of a harmless animal” but conceded Poulsen was not the one who posed the goose or posted the Snapchat video.
Magistrate Damien Dwyer said he could readily infer there was a “perverse notion of amusement or sport” in his conduct.
Poulsen, who also pleaded guilty to other offences, was fined $3750 and convictions were not recorded.
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