A 29-year-old Aubin Grove man has today been sentenced after pleading guilty to animal cruelty in the Perth Magistrate’s Court, where he appeared via video link from Wooroloo Prison.
He was fined a total of $2500 and ordered to pay court costs of $155.70 and care and treatment costs of $200.73. He has also been prohibited from owning or being in contact with a dog for three years.
The man was charged with being cruel to an animal, a Rottweiler puppy named Sasha, under Sections 19(1) and 19(2)(a) of the Animal Welfare Act 2002.
In August last year, WA Police went to the man’s home to execute a Misuse of Drugs Act search warrant. Among the items seized was a CCTV hard drive.
Officers reviewing the footage saw vision from April 2020 of the man being cruel to Sasha, and police filed a cruelty report with RSPCA WA.
The footage showed the offender carrying the black and tan three-month-old puppy by the neck and midsection, at around waist height. As he walks in front of a parked car, he can be seen kneeing Sasha hard in the ribs, three times.
Sasha can’t escape and the footage shows she is hanging from the offender’s hands, quite limp and in obvious pain. The offender then walks out of view of the camera.
An RSPCA inspector went to the man’s home with police after viewing the vision—the offender admitted to slapping Sasha a couple of times for chasing people, but denied beating her.
When the inspector told the man they had footage of him kneeing Sasha three times, he said he didn’t remember the incident.
The inspector seized Sasha and brought her to the RSPCA’s Animal Care Centre in Malaga where X-rays showed evidence of healing from a fracture to one of her ribs.
RSPCA WA Executive Manager Animal and Enforcement Operations, Hannah Dreaver, said it was never acceptable to deliberately hurt an animal.
“Our animals rely on us totally and love us unconditionally and it is absolutely not OK to treat them like this,” Hannah said.
“Sasha could not escape the kneeing and would have suffered fear as well as pain from her fractured rib, and the haphazard way in which she was being carried.”
Sasha remains at the RSPCA’s Animal Care Centre.
Hannah thanked the WA Police officers who saw this shocking vision and filed a cruelty report with the RSPCA.
RSPCA WA relies on the community to report incidents of suspected cruelty and neglect. Report cruelty 24/7 on 1300 CRUELTY (1300 278 358) or online here.
