ANIMAL ABUSE: Cheyanne weighed only 11 kilograms and was close to death, right, when the starving dog was found and taken into care in May last year. Cheyanne has since returned to a healthy weight, above, and will soon return to Bendigo to settle into a permanent home. Picture: CONTRIBUTED
THE FORMER owner of six puppies and their mother, Cheyanne, who were all starved nearly to death, was convicted and fined $5000 plus $1700 in costs this week.
After inflicting “one of the worst cases of starvation and neglect (the RSPCA) has ever seen”, Eaglehawk woman, Kiri Ody, 23, did not face court but was sentenced ex-parte.
Magistrate William Gibb convicted Ody of seven charges of failing to provide sufficient food to each of the dogs.
Ody was also banned from owning an animal, under a court order, for six years.
Prosecutor Inspector Jason Nichols said the dogs now struggled to trust people and ate their food in large gulps, as if it were their last meal.
“They will never be the same. You can recover physically but, like people, often the mental scars stay for life,” he said.
On May 25 last year, the mother dog was found emaciated, hypothermic and unable to stand.
Her temperature was too low to be recorded and her response to rescuers was no more than an eye-blink reflex.
The treating vet could not determine her breed and feared for her life – her frail body weighed only 11 kilograms, almost 15 kilos less than her ideal weight.
Later that week, RSPCA inspector Amy Benham and inspector Lisa Calleja attended the property they believed housed the dog.
A housemate of Ody’s, Glenn Piper, was questioned and said he had found the dog beside Lake Neangar.
Mr Piper said he had not seen any other puppies.
The next day, police officers executed a warrant on the property and found six emaciated puppies.
Ody admitted she owned the pups and said the mother had gone to Queensland.
She told them the pups were fed regularly and did not know why they were in that condition. She agreed to surrender the dogs, which have since been put into foster care.