CRUELTY TO DOG

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27165, 8 October 1953, Page 8

CRUELTY TO DOG

‘DELIBERATE, WANTON KICKING’

MAN SENT TO PRISON FOR SEVEN DAYS

“I consider this to be a bad case of its kind. It was deliberate, wanton kicking of the dog* over a period of time until it was injured,” said Mr 1 Raymond Ferner, S.M., sentencing Clive Edward Lambert in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to seven days’ imprisonment with hard labour for being cruel to a dog. Lambert had pleaded guilty to a charge that on August 1 he * caused unnecessary suffering to a dog by kicking it. Mr P. T. Mahon, who appeared for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said that on the afternoon of August 1, a Mrs King, who lived in Richmond, was walking past Lambert’s home at 49 Alexandra street when she saw him kicking a dog. Lambert was holding on to the Sate with one hand and kicking the og’with great force. Mrs King again passed the house three-quarters of an hour later. The dog was lying on the grass, howling, and it could not get up. When she got home she told members of her family about it and two of them went to see the dog. It was still howling and could not get up. A complaint was made to the S.P.C.A., said Mr Mahon, and an inspector went to Lambert’s home, where he found that the dog was .injured. Lambert was not there and the inspector took the dog away. The inspector called later in the evening and told Lambert about the complaint. Lambert said the dog was a stray and he wanted to get rid of it. The dog was a retriever pup aged seven months. Its left hind leg was broken in two places. A veterinary surgeon was called by the S.P.C.A. and the dog attendfed to. It had recovered from the injuries. “There is no doubt that Lambert <ras guilty of an extremely brutal act,” said Mr Mahon. Lambert told the Court that the dog had been worrying him a fair bit. He had put it off the property two or three times but it came back. He did not mean to do it any harm. The Magistrate said he would hear evidence by Mrs King. Mrs Alicia King, of Perth street, said she was walking past. 49 Alexandra street about 2 p.m. on August 1 and saw Lambert kicking the dog repeatedly. She was appalled, but thought it better not to speak to Lambert. The kicking continued while she was walking along the footpath, the width of the section, but Lambert stopped kicking when he saw her. Later she saw that, the dog was injured and thought its hip was out. She called to the dog and it tried to get up but could not. Asked if he had anything to say, Lambert said he had kibkea the dog only once. The Magistrate said that the evidence was that the kicking of the dog continued for some time.