Gila Rosily: Market stallholder’s poultry shame

A Logan woman has been banned from keeping poultry for three years following a damning case of neglect discovered by the RSPCA.

A Logan woman who declared her medical diet required fresh chicken has been banned from possessing poultry for three years following a damning case of animal neglect presented to the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Gila Golda Rosily, 62, was found guilty of nine counts of breaching her duty of care to the many ducks, chickens, roosters and quails at her South Maclean property in January, 2019.

Four members of the public alerted the RSPCA to the plight of Rosily’s poultry when they noticed five young ducks confined to a small cage without shade or shelter at a stall at the Ipswich Showgrounds on November 11, 2018.

The court heard the witnesses describe the ducks as dirty, distressed and huddled together, surrounded by their own faeces with their feathers falling out.

Gila Golda Rosily has been banned from possessing poultry for three years.

In an effort to rescue the ducks, the four market goers made a deal to buy them and take them to the RSPCA Brisbane Animal Care Campus at Wacol.

A vet who later examined the ducks noted they were overheated and underweight, suffering from respiratory disease, intestinal parasites, conjunctivitis and poor feather condition.

Rosily denied she had ever been to the Ipswich Markets, said she only ever sold her animals back to the producer who supplied them and only had possession of them for two or three days prior to the incident.

Another member of the public, who contacted Rosily through Facebook Marketplace to purchase a watermelon, became similarly concerned when she visited Rosily’s home and saw two chickens struggling to move.

Rosily took photos of the RSPCA workers when they visited her home in January 2017 and posted it to her Facebook page.

The court heard one chicken was panting heavily, while the other seemed completely immobile, so the woman took the first to a vet at Jimboomba.

It presented with an injured neck, severe dehydration, skin covered in mites and maggots crawling through the feathers on its neck.

A vet from the RSPCA declared the chicken was in “end stage shock” with multiple organ failure and respiratory distress which necessitated its eventual euthanasia.

The discoveries prompted a search of Rosily’s home on January 17, 2019.

It was there RSPCA officers discovered a chicken who had died inside a BBQ, eight ducks confined to a small cage laden with faeces and mud, a quail covered in faeces and hay without any clean food or water, a white leghorn chicken and its five chicks in “putrid” conditions and two roosters crowded into a small cage, unable to stretch their wings.

The animals exhibited a variety of medical problems as a consequence of the poor care, ranging from respiratory disease, to mange, to an “inability to display normal behaviour”.

The Crown noted Rosily “showed no remorse and zero insight into her offending”.

Rosily’s son, Talyy Rosily, was called as a witness and told the court his mother “tries her best, but she’s only an old lady”.

Rosily herself claimed she suffered a shoulder injury as a result of the RSPCA visit and needed the poultry on her property because she “lives off the land” and her “medical diet requires fresh chicken”.

Both Rosily and her son interrupted the hearing on several occasions, to the point where Magistrate Clare Kelly threatened to have security remove them from the courtroom.

Concerns arose that Rosily’s son was illegally recording the legal proceedings so security confiscated both of his phones for the remainder of the trial.

Magistrate Clare Kelly said Rosily’s evidence was “uncompelling” and found her guilty of all charges.

She was sentenced to a $1000 good behaviour bond for 12 months, banned from possessing poultry for three years and ordered to pay $6224 in care, legal and filing costs to the RSPCA.