Big fine for animal cruelty
A 65-year-old woman has been fined $5000 and ordered to pay $30,000 in costs after being convicted of animal cruelty.
Adele Culverwell was found guilty of leaving her three-year-old Borzoi dog Roxy in a car parked at Carousel Shopping Centre on a 38-degree December day.
She has also been forced to surrender the animal, which will be rehomed.
Magistrate Richard Huston said that it would have been “unbearably hot” for the dog.
“It should have been obvious that conditions in the car were unbearable,” he said.
He said that Culverwell’s “conduct in confining the dog was completely unacceptable”.
Mr Huston said there would be “community outrage” and that there was a need to “discourage others”.
The case is believed to be the first prosecution in WA for cruelly confining a dog in a hot car.
The RSPCA said the penalty sent a warning to all dog owners about leaving dogs in hot cars during the warmer months.
Last summer, the RSPCA received almost 600 calls about dogs in hot cars.
