Claremont woman to fine $2500 after emaciated dog weighed 12kg

A young Claremont woman has been slapped with a fine after an RSPCA inspector discovered her dog emaciated with his “hips, ribs and spine easily felt”.

A YOUNG Hobart woman says the reason her pet border collie had wasted away to 12kg was because he kept knocking his bowl over.

Magenta-haired Jayde Erin Lewis, 24, also said she had just escaped a violent relationship and had undergone a traumatic episode of her life, so didn’t have enough money for decent dog food. She appeared in the Hobart Magistrates Court yesterday, when she pleaded guilty to one charge of animal cruelty.

Magistrate Michael Daly was told that on April 17 last year, an RSPCA inspector attended Lewis’s Claremont apartment after receiving a complaint that the dog was malnourished.

When she arrived, the inspector found a tri-coloured border collie that appeared thin with “its ribs, hips and spine easily felt”, the court heard.

The inspector seized the dog, leaving a notice of seizure on Lewis’s doorstep, taking him to the Claremont Veterinary Surgery, which found him to be “severely emaciated” at 12.14kg, with a body condition score of one out of five.

A vet who examined the dog said he would have experienced suffering.

“The defendant explained the dog flicks its bowl over and that was the explanation for the dog’s emaciation,” Mr Daly quoted from the vet.

The vet also said Lewis said she fed the dog “half a cup (of dog food), but on the smaller side of half a cup”.

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When the vet told her that was not enough food, Lewis said she had fed him the quantities recommended on the dog food bag. For the next three months, the dog went into foster care and was nourished back up to 22.3kg and was next assessed by vets as having a body condition score of three out of five.

When the vet told Lewis her dog was now healthy, she said she wanted to surrender him.

Speaking in court, Lewis said she had been through “a really bad time” and had just escaped from a violent relationship. “I was put in a bad financial situation, which is why I had to buy cheaper food,” she said. She said she wanted to surrender her dog after hearing “he was doing well”.

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Mr Daly said he accepted Lewis had escaped a violent situation. “I accept that in that setting, you had some mental health issues trying to extract yourself from the relationship,” he said.

He added that Lewis would now be responsible for the costs incurred, ordering her to pay a bill of $2518.90. Mr Daly also convicted Lewis of the animal cruelty charge and ordered she keep no pets for a period of five years.

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