Dog fighting, live baiting, putting kitten in the oven: Some of Qld’s most horrifying animal abuse cases
GRAPHIC CONTENT: Queensland’s most shocking animal cruelty cases have seen animals beaten and killed, piglets and possums used in live baiting, and dogs trained to fight and maul each other. THESE ARE THE FACES BEHIND THE STATE’S MOST SICKENING CASES
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“Barbaric”, “vicious”, “appalling”.
These are how some of Queensland’s most shocking cases of animal cruelty and abuse have been described.
Animals are often helpless against the abuse cruel people can inflict on them.
They are attacked for little to no reason, used in fighting rings, or as bait to train other animals.
Below are some of Queensland’s most horrifying cases of animal cruelty.
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TIMMY PATRICK SAWYER
Timmy Patrick Sawyer grabbed his neighbour’s cat by the tail and repeatedly smashed the cat into a road.
With a milk bottle filled with wine in one hand, Sawyer yelled “die you f***ing cat, die”, as he bashed the animal’s head into a bitumen road.
Sawyer beat the cat into the ground until it was bloody and dying.
In February 2018, Sawyer pleaded guilty at Hervey Bay District Court to animal cruelty.
Sawyer was one of the first animal cruelty offenders to be sentenced to actual jail time for the crime, sentenced to nine months in jail, to serve three.
Sawyer was banned from owning an animal for two years.
TOM NOBLE
Disgraced greyhound trainer Tom Noble used live piglets and possums to encourage his dogs to run faster.
In February 2016, Noble pleaded guilty in Ipswich Magistrates Court to 15 counts of animal cruelty.
His crimes were discovered through clandestine cameras that caught him using live animals as bait for his dogs to chase.
The footage aired on the ABC’s Four Corners program and lead to legislative change in the greyhound industry.
Noble told the Courier Mail although he believed live baiting was commonplace, he regretted what he did.
“You regret it now. It’s just a thing you’ve been brought up with,” he said.
“Looking back 10 years ago, there probably was not one track in Queensland that wasn’t live baiting.
Noble was sentenced to three years jail suspended for five years.
Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren described Noble’s actions as “barbaric” but said his health, age and role as primary carer for his ill wife meant it was not in the public interest for the then 69-year-old to spend actual time in jail.
It was a decision animal welfare groups, including the RSPCA and Animal Liberation Queensland, said was not good enough.
JARED NATHAN TRENEAR
Jared Nathan Trenear starved his dogs, tied them up for weeks on end and forced them to fight.
It was one of the first prosecutions of its kind.
In April 2018, the RSPCA seized adult dogs and two litters of puppies, one litter aged nine-weeks-old and one four-months-old, from Trenear’s Mt Cotton property.
Photos of the dogs showed them bloodied and their injuries untreated.
The adult dogs were restrained and not provided clean water or suitable bedding. They were restrained within sight of each other, heightening their aggression.
RSPCA officers found fighting memorabilia, needles, pain medication, antibiotics and breeding stands used to mate dogs that show aggressive tendencies.
Trenear initially denied he was a dog fighter and claimed he used the dogs for pig hunting.
Trenear was ordered to pay $6388.50 to the RSPCA for the dog’s medical costs and banned for life from owning dogs or poultry.
He was sentenced to six months jail, to be released on parole after he served about four weeks behind bars.
ALEX CHRISTOPHER GILBERT
In a fit of rage Alex Christopher Gilbert punched his own three-month-old husky puppy in the head and threw it 10 metres in the air – breaking its leg.
Gilbert pleaded guilty at Beenleigh Magistrates Court to animal cruelty as well as public nuisance, obstructing a police officer and doing a burnout that caused $2000 worth of damage to a road.
Gilbert, a father of four, claimed the Siberian husky puppy had bitten him, so he punched it and threw it in the air.
When he spoke to RSPCA investigators he told them “The f***en thing bit me so I punched it in the f***en mouth”.
Gilbert was ordered to pay $3000 in legal fees and animal treatment costs to the RSPCA and he was banned from owning an animal until 2024.
The puppy recovered from its injuries and was rehomed.
ANDREW COLEMAN
Andrew Coleman was coming down from ice when he viciously attacked his sister’s dog.
In February 2019, Coleman repeatedly punched and elbowed the Bull Arab cross dog, named Jaboo, to the head and body and eventually throwing him by the neck.
The attack in North Mackay was all caught on tape.
He pleaded guilty at Mackay Magistrates Court to animal cruelty.
Barrister for the RSPCA Scott McLennan described the footage as “sickening”.
“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.”
The court heard he had been using ice and although he was not directly under the influence, he was coming down from the high.
Magistrate Ron Muirhead called Coleman’s actions “appalling” but said they were not worthy of a jail sentence.
He was ordered to undergo probation for 18 months and perform 100 hours of community service. A conviction was recorded.
Coleman was banned from owning an animal for three years.
JIAWEN ZHANG
Jiawen Zhang put a kitten in a hot oven, ripped its teeth out, cut its claws off and tried to drown it.
In February 2019, Zhang pleaded guilty at Brisbane Magistrates Court to serious animal cruelty.
The court heard Zhang, an engineering student who lived in St Lucia, tortured and mutilated a female kitten that was trying to escape with her mother from his backyard.
On November 14, 2018, Zhang took the kitten from her mother and threw it in a still hot oven in his sharehouse.
The kitten’s fur was burnt off as it scratched to escape and she suffered burns to her belly paws and legs.
He then took her out of the oven and up to his room where he began ripping her teeth out and cutting off her claws with nail clippers, causing significant bleeding.
He then tried to drown the kitten by flushing it down the toilet but was caught by his housemate who had arrived home.
Zhang flung the kitten into a nearby bush but due to her severe injuries it could not move.
Zhang’s housemates called the police and the kitten was taken to a vet in Toowong who saved the kitten’s life. She made a miraculous recovery and was adopted to a loving family.
Magistrate Terry Gardner described Zhang’s actions as “cruel, callous and deliberate”.
Zhang was sentenced to six months jail and immediately released on parole.