"Horrifying" and "distressing" was how the Otago SPCA described two cases of animal cruelty in Dunedin, which left a dog dead and a seagull injured.
Chief inspector Virginia Pine said both cases, which were heard in the Dunedin District Court yesterday, were at the "reasonably high end of the scale" of mistreatment because they were both deliberate acts.
The first case was discovered in August last year when SPCA inspectors found a dead, emaciated dog at the back of a property.
A veterinary report revealed the dog was starved by its owner, John Errol Thompson (56), over a period of several weeks.
"It absolutely defies logic and common-sense to do something like that.
"He could have asked us for help at any time," Mrs Pine said.
She felt for the "unloved" dog and described its carcass as "one of the most distressing things" she had seen.
Thompson was charged under the Animal Welfare Act for failing to comply with his obligation to ensure the dog's physical health needs were met.
He admitted the charge and was remanded for sentencing on December 7.
The second case, which took place in December last year, involved a "random act of torture and ill-treatment" against a seagull.
Trevor Kelvin Scorringe (32) was charged under the welfare act for ill-treating a red-billed gull in two incidents at his workplace, a Dunedin supermarket.
In the first incident, he drove a fork-lift at a shopping trolley in which a bird was perched and repeatedly rammed it, stunning the bird.
He then placed a shopping trolley in an open forecourt area and waited for a gull to perch inside it.
When one did, he shook the trolley for about a minute, knocking the bird against the sides of the trolley.
He also continually struck the bird with the trolley's movable flap for about four minutes, rendering the bird motionless.
Scorringe admitted the charge, was convicted and sentenced to 200 hours' community work, fined $600, with pay court costs of $130.
Mrs Pine said his sentence was "adequate".
"I just hope he gets the help he needs because it's very concerning, the sort of mind of someone that does something like that to a defenseless animal," she said.
She encouraged anyone who knew, or suspected, a person was mistreating animals, to contact the SPCA so action could be taken.
"We always want to be the ambulance at the top of the cliff. We hate being one at the bottom."
