Repeat animal cruelty offender, hobby farmer Ken Rosendale, avoids jail again

A hobby farmer who kept his animals thirsty, starving and in dirty cages with carcasses strewn nearby, has managed to avoid time in prison for his crimes. LATEST FROM COURT >>

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A HOBBY farmer who kept his menagerie of exotic birds, sheep, dogs and ducks without food or water, or locked in filthy cages covered in faeces, has been banned from ever owning animals again.

But Ken David Pietters Rosendale, who has now moved closer to Hobart from his 94-acre property at Levendale after a number of his animals had to be euthanised, has also avoided an expected stint in jail.

On Tuesday, Rosendale was sentenced to a 12-month home detention order, and indefinitely disqualified from having custody of animals, after pleading guilty to dozens of animal cruelty charges.

Ken David Pietters Rosendale arriving at the Hobart Magistrates Court over 32 animal cruelty charges. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones.

The case has taken six months to wind its way through the Hobart Magistrates Court, with the 58-year-old first pleading guilty to the charges in December last year, then recanting his plea when he discovered he faced the prospect of three months’ jail time.

But the court heard Rosendale – who has now moved from his hobby farm at Levendale to a property at Otago Bay – had been reassessed, and now deemed suitable for detention.

Magistrate Chris Webster ordered Rosendale must reside at the Otago Bay residence 24 hours a day and be subject to electronic monitoring.

The court previously heard Biosecurity Tasmania officers visited his Levendale property in 2019, finding thirsty and starving animals locked in dirty cages covered in faeces, feathers and dirt, with the carcasses of marsupials and ducks lying nearby.

Sheep, peacocks, dogs, a puppy, a long-billed corella, a guinea pig, ducks, galahs, quails, finches, pigeons, budgerigars, canaries and silkies had all been left either without water, feed or both.

Ken David Pietters Rosendale arriving at the Hobart Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Chicken and sheep had enthusiastically rushed to tubs of water after officers found the birds trying to drink droplets of water dripping down a mud flap.

Officers later seized the animals and provided them with food, water and care at a secure location, but some were so ill, depressed and sick that they were euthanased.

On Tuesday, Rosendale pleaded guilty to 30 counts of cruelty to animals, one count of using an animal care management method likely to cause unreasonable pain or suffering, and one count of having custody of animal in contravention of an order.

It wasn’t Rosendale’s first offence.

Back in 2014, RSPCA found a number of animals so emaciated from malnutrition they were unable to stand and several pigs and goats had to be put down.

At the time, he copped a three-month suspended jail term, was banned from owning goats and pigs, and was ordered to permanently limit his poultry flock to 20 birds.

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