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CONVICTED: Was justice served?
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When you vote, you are voting on whether or not the punishment fit the crime, NOT on the severity of the case itself. If you feel the sentence was very weak, you would vote 1 star. If you feel the sentence was very strong, you would vote 5 stars.
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Case #19540 Rating: 1.5 out of 5
Wednesday, Aug 1, 2007
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Patrick Franklin Doran
Giving three badly mauled chooks a "sporting chance" by leaving them untreated in a pen has cost Aramara sawmiller Patrick Franklin Doran $5329.30.
A $2000 fine and costs were also imposed because Doran failed to give many of his 70 chihuahua dogs due care. Many of the dogs were living in pens piled with rotting feces.
On convicting Doran in Maryborough's Magistrates Court on Thursday, Magistrate Graham Buckley said the 23 dogs and the live hen seized by the RSPCA would be returned but would be subject to regular RSPCA checks.
RSPCA chief inspector Byron Hall said his staff were disappointed that Doran would get the seized animals back because they did not believe he was giving his animals due care.
When RSPCA inspectors and three police officers inspected Doran's property in Glenbar Road on September 28 last year after a complaint, they found two of the hens in the pen had died while the other was still alive.
RSPCA veterinarian Lynne Falconer said the live hen had deep, infected puncture wounds on its lower back consistent with it having been attacked by a carnivorous animal. It was also lame on its right leg. She thought it had probably been in that condition for one or two days.
Two of Mr Doran's neighbors told the court they had seen the live hen and believed it had been "feather plucked" by other hens.
Mr Doran admitted that the hens had been "scruffed by a dog", probably one of the chihuahuas. He said they were only $3 chooks and he put them in the pen along with a rooster to give them a sporting chance.
"The next day I would have assessed their condition and put them down if necessary," he said.
The two dead hens had bone-crushing injuries and their abdomens were torn open consistent with a dog attack but Ms Falconer could not tell whether the injuries were inflicted before or after death.
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