Sick, sadistic idiots who brutalise animals should be in jail
BARELY a week goes by when we don’t hear about some sickening case of animals being injured or killed. Our justice system fails in dealing with human victims so it’s not surprising that it fails to deliver justice for animals, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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GIVEN our justice system’s failings in dealing with human victims, it’s not surprising that it fails to deliver justice for animals.
Whether the animal brutalised is a pet, livestock or wildlife, the result is the same: a slap on the wrist if the offender is unlucky enough to be prosecuted in the first place.
There is a deep disconnect between the public’s disgust with cases of sadistic animal cruelty and the punishment meted out by the judiciary. And barely a week goes by when we don’t hear about some sickening case of animals being injured or killed for the amusement of depraved idiots.
MAN ARRESTED AFTER VIDEO OF 4WD RUNNING DOWN EMUS
MAN CHARGED OVER MASS POISONING OF WEDGE-TAILED EAGLES
VIDEO: GROUP ON QUAD BIKES CHASING EMUS IN LATROBE VALLEY
In recent days, we’ve heard about cases from Victoria to Western Australia that have shocked the country. Last week, West Australian police refused to release footage of the torture and killing of kangaroos that was described as deeply disturbing.
The videos show two incidents involving men abusing kangaroos that are repeatedly punched with knuckledusters, kicked, stabbed and burnt while the cowardly cretins laugh.
In a third incident, a man places a live chicken on a fire fuelled by accelerant. Four men aged 22 to 28 have been charged but they remain in the community after being granted bail on Friday.
The accused, Dylan Leslie Griffin, Luke Dempster, Ricky Swan and Ben Jaydon Malpuss, must abide by strict bail conditions including not associating with each other or members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang.
The images of the three incidents are so disturbing that police declined to release the video.
“I’ve seen the videos and honestly, in my 17 years of policing, it’s one of the most disturbing things I have seen, hands down,” detective Senior Sergeant Paul Giuffre said. “It’s graphic, it’s disturbing, it’s cowardly.”
The police also noted in court that the accused had black eyes, which is suspected to be courtesy of none-too-pleased members of a motorcycle gang. It seems even lawless bikies have little tolerance of those suspected of animal torture.
At the weekend, footage emerged of young people on a motorcycle and quad bike, chasing and swerving towards emus in Newborough in country Victoria.
It comes a week after another sickening video from northwest Victoria that showed a mob of emus being deliberately mowed down while the driver filming the carnage laughed uncontrollably and yelled: “One, two, three … This is f---ing great. I’ve got that one too … and that one.”
Jacob MacDonald has been charged with several animal cruelty offences and is expected to appear in court in November.
The 20-year-old from Cowangie says he regrets the incident that he had filmed just for his friends’ amusement and is upset that one of his mates has “ratted on him”.
“Yeah, someone’s obviously not as good of a mate as I thought,” MacDonald said in a TV interview.
“It was a mistake, it was a silly idea. It’s not funny any more, it was at the time.”
Killing frightened birds running for their lives probably stopped being fun the moment he realised that there might be some grave consequences for his cruelty.
The reality is that neither of these cases would be before the courts if the alleged offenders hadn’t filmed themselves abusing animals. Two of the youngsters involved in the Latrobe Valley incident also appear to be filming themselves, holding cameras as they chased frightened emus.
Barree Egan-Laylor, who filmed the riders tormenting emus, claims it’s a regular occurrence that has resulted in several deaths. “So far, five emus have been found on the roads because these people chase them out of the paddock,” he posted. “One was killed, and two seriously injured … there should be 12, sadly now we only see six.”
In Victoria, the maximum penalty for animal cruelty is 24 months in jail, and fines of more than $70,000, but it is rare for anyone to be jailed, let alone for anything approaching two years.
Last week, a New Zealander who killed more than 400 wedge-tailed eagles over 18 months in Gippsland was sentenced to a pitifully lenient 14 days in jail and fined $2500.
Murray James Silvester will spend less than an hour in jail and pay about $6 for each protected eagle he killed. He had told authorities he had killed up to 420 eagles, and other protected species, including a kookaburra, were also found dead on the Tubbut farm where he worked.
Silvester’s sentence may be deemed manifestly inadequate but at least he will see the inside of a jail cell, which is more than can be said for Tasmanian Joshua Leigh Jeffrey who in June was sentenced to 49 hours’ community service and a paltry $82 fine for using a stick to beat to death six penguins.
You can get parking fines that are higher than what Jeffrey received for an aggravated cruelty conviction, a crime that carries a five-year maximum in Tasmania.
It is rare for animal cruelty cases to be prosecuted; it is important that when they are, the courts hand out sentences that are in line with community expectations and reflect the seriousness of the crime.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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