Starved, beaten, drowned: NSW’s worst animal cruelty cases of 2021
Animals are supposed to be man’s best friend — but some have endured horrific abuse at the hands of those supposed to love them. Here are 2021’s worst cases. WARNING: Graphic content.
NSW
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Adopting a pet is meant to be special - an unbreakable bond of love and trust between owner and animal, whether furred, feathered or finned.
But in a variety of sickening cases, pet owners have turned into their animals’ worst nightmare, beating them, starving them or mistreating them so badly that some don’t survive.
In the 2021 financial year the RSPCA has so far charged 93 animal abusers with a total of 720 offences involving 746 animals.
The conviction rate of animal abuse charges is 92 per cent.
RSPCA NSW Chief Inspector Scott Meyers said if someone abused an animal, they could expect harsh consequences.
“NSW has some of the toughest penalties for animal cruelty offences in the country and individuals found guilty of committing animal cruelty can be fined over $100,000 and imprisoned for multiple years,” Chief Insp Meyers said.
“The Court can also prohibit people convicted of animal cruelty offences under the Crimes Act from purchasing, owning or working with animals ever again.”
These are some of NSW’s nastiest animal abuse cases this year.
Bull arab dog starved for months
A man has avoided jail time for allegedly starving his bull arab dog for up to eight weeks, seeing her weight plummet to just 14.1kg.
Lila the female bull arab was found by Ethan Bolton’s landlord at his Nelson Plains property in December 2020, crying in the backyard without any food or water, Raymond Terrace Local Court heard.
Lila was brought to the local vet, and then visited by the RSPCA in January, who transferred ownership to Bolton’s landlord to rehabilitate her.
The dog has since made a full recovery and, in September, Bolton was convicted of failing to provide proper and sufficient food to the animal and being in charge of an animal and failing to provide vet treatment.
He was sentenced to an 18-month intensive corrections order, 100 hours of community service and a $233 fine.
For more on this story, click here.
Chihuahua found seriously neglected, eye protruding
A woman was convicted in November for multiple animal cruelty charges after a severely neglected male chihuahua was found at her home.
After a complaint of neglect in 2019, RSPCA inspectors went to a Bidwill property, where they found the chihuahua with its right eye protruding out of the socket and the left eye covered in pus.
The dog also had a patchy coat, scaly skin, trouble breathing and was dripping urine.
The animal was seized and the woman charged with offences including committing an act of aggravated cruelty upon an animal and failing to provide veterinary treatment.
She was convicted and placed on a two-year community corrections order and banned from owning an animal for five years.
Cat drowned in a garbage bin
A man has been convicted after drowning a cat named Mango in Coffs Harbour.
Phil Tripp, of Coffs Harbour, was charged with torture, beat etc and cause death of animal in July after he allegedly saw a cat on his property through a CCTV camera and believed it to be feral.
Mr Tripp allegedly lured the cat into a cage with cat food inside and, after trapping the animal, he submerged it in a garbage bin filled with water, Coffs Harbour Local Court heard.
The man is then alleged to have posted a photo of the cat on social media, declaring it as “the first feral cat of the season”.
The RSPCA later identified the animal as the pet of a local family.
Mr Tripp was given a nine-month intensive corrections order and 100 hours of community service.
Horse’s gaping wound left untreated
A Cliftleigh woman was convicted after her horse had to be put down due to an untreated, large gaping wound on its chest.
The paint horse mare named Lady was found in a paddock after a torrential storm with a large chest wound.
Her injury, too graphic to be pictured here, sliced through her chest muscles and exposed her ribcage. The wound was 50cm long and 40cm deep.
The owner of the paddock called a vet, who sedated Lady and gave her pain relief, before the horse’s owner Pascale Bundi arrived.
The vet offered to treat or euthanise the horse but Bundi refused and opted to take the horse home despite the paddock owner offering to pay for an estimated $6000 in treatment.
The owner told the pair she would treat the animal herself but an RSPCA inspector who attended her property the following day — 20 hours after the horse’s injuries were discovered — found Lady standing in the hot sun, with greying flesh and muscle spilling from the chest wound, which had a foul smell.
A different vet was called and Lady was euthanised.
Bundi pleaded guilty to one count of failing to provide veterinary treatment and was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order (CCO) and fined $2,000. She was also ordered to pay the RSPCA further costs of almost $300.
Dog’s cancerous lump left untreated
A Staffordshire terrier with a large cancerous lump on its stomach had to be put down after its owner left the growth untreated.
An RSPCA inspector visited the dog’s home in Glenmore Park on July 6 and saw the female, named Suzy, had a large, ulcerated and infected wound which was weeping blood and affected her ability to sit or walk.
The RSPCA seized the animal, and a vet discovered Suzy had a type of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, which should have been treated four months earlier.
The staffy had to be euthanised due to her condition.
Suzy’s female owner was convicted of multiple animal cruelty charges and given a two-year community corrections order in November this year, and ordered to pay more than $8500 in fines and vet costs.
She was also banned from owning an animal for five years.
Cat found with maggot-infested facial growth
An Ourimbah woman has been convicted for leaving a maggot-infested growth on her cat’s face untreated for three months, which saw it put down.
A local resident found Honey, Cathryn Richards’ Persian cross cat, with a severe facial condition and took the cat to a specialist vet in Tuggerah on October 5, 2020.
Wyong Local Court facts state Honey was then moved to an RSPCA vet at Rutherford, where she was assessed to be emaciated and significantly underweight, with a significant cutaneous lesion covering her nose, upper lip and maxillary bone.
The vet found the lesion was necrotic, ulcerated and had haemorrhaged, finding live maggots on the cat’s face.
It was estimated Honey had needed treatment for at least three months, with court facts stating she would have been in “an extremely severe and high level of pain and discomfort, for a significant period of time”.
Honey was euthanised, and RSPCA inspectors spoke to Richards at her home, where she confirmed she was the cat’s owner and hadn’t taken her to a vet.
The 65-year-old pleaded guilty to committing an act of cruelty on an animal and being in charge of an animal but failing to provide veterinary treatment.
Richards was sentenced to a community corrections order for 18 months, fined $1200 — half of which was ordered to go to the RSPCA — and banned from owning another animal for five years.
Horse neglected, nose mass left untreated
A woman has been convicted after neglecting her horse and failing to get it proper medical treatment for a growth on its face.
The grey horse was first seen by a vet making free house calls in Goodmans Ford on January 15, 2020 in Goodmans Ford.
The vet noted a large ulcerated mass on the animal’s nose, which was about 15cm wide and 4cm high.
The vet offered to euthanise the horse because of the severity of the growth but owner Ina Casburn, 53, refused, according to Moss Vale Local Court documents.
Two months later, a complaint about the animal’s welfare was made to the RSPCA but inspectors were unable to see the animal due to floods and bushfires in the Wollondilly area.
When they were finally able to get to the site on January 20, a year after the vet’s visit, RSPCA staff found the horse in poor condition, with its hips, ribs and vertebrae sticking out, and the mass on its nose bloody and covered with flies.
They advised Ms Casburn to put down the horse but didn’t hear from her for another week so arrived on January 27 with a vet in tow and found the horse again in “great distress” with a second mass.
The horse was euthanised by the vet onsite with Ms Casburn’s permission.
She pleaded guilty to committing an act of aggravated animal cruelty and failing to provide veterinary treatment and received a 12-month conditional release order on June 8.
Dog kicked to death
A man was jailed in August for allegedly kicking his dog to death in Broken Hill.
On October 28, 2020 an RSPCA NSW inspector responded to a cruelty complaint about a man kicking a dog to death and found the animal dead in the back of a ute.
The man admitted kicking the dog, a Staffordshire terrier named Olaf, an hour earlier, and said Olaf had started seizing soon afterwards before passing away.
A post-mortem examination of the animal revealed the dog died of cardiac muscle haemorrhages which may have resulted in cardiac infarct and cardiac arrest. Olaf also had internal bruising to the muscles of his chest and abdomen.
The 33-year-old Broken Hill man was sentenced to nine months in prison, with a non-parole period of three months, from July 30, before making and losing an appeal on August 9, when he was taken into custody to serve his sentence.
He was also banned from owning an animal for 10 years.
Horses found starving, neglected
A woman was convicted in August after three severely neglected horses were seized from her property in June.
On June 8, NSW RSPCA inspectors went to a Lake Albert property and found a barren paddock with no water or food. It was also infested with the toxic weed Paterson’s curse.
Three severely neglected horses was seized from a Kooringal woman by RSPCA NSW. A skeletal Appaloosa stallion was found and seized, as was a paint horse stallion and palomino mare, who were rushed to Sydney University Equine Hospital for urgent treatment including gum ulcers, severe rain scald and poor body condition.
All horses eventually recovered and were rehomed, gaining 50kg while in care, Wagga Wagga Local Court heard.
On August 19, the 41-year-old-Kooringal woman was found guilty and convicted of offences including failing to provide veterinary treatment and failing to provide proper and sufficient food to three horses in poor body condition.
She was fined $3000 and ordered to pay $8,973.90 in veterinary, shelter and court costs, and prohibited from purchasing, acquiring, taking possession or custody of any horse for one year.
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