A former Kennel Club judge and his wife, who were banned from caring for animals for 20 years, raised concerns over visual evidence when they appealed against their conviction yesterday.
David and Daryl Balfour were convicted in December 2011 on three animal-cruelty charges after the SPCA found 87 dogs and161 cats in cramped conditions with insufficient shelter, water, light and ventilation on a property near Dannevirke in 2007.
At the Court of Appeal in Wellington yesterday, the couple's lawyer, Eric Forster, told Justices Douglas White, Lowell Goddard and Simon France the fine was "harsh".
Mr Forster expressed concern that TVNZ footage of the raid on the Dannevirke property was excluded from evidence without being viewed in full by Judge Alastair Garland.
The lawyer also raised photos of the property produced as evidence in the District Court trial before Judge Grant Fraser. The photos, taken by the SPCA, did not have dates or times attached. That information had since been made available and should be compared with the film footage, Mr Forster argued.
The times the photos were taken was important because images from the third day of the operation could show evidence that had been moved "innocently" over the previous days.
He also argued that some of the cats' diseases were not significant and there was "no suffering in the dog population".
The couple kept the animals as part of a breeding operation. Half the animals were put down and about 50 cats were treated by a veterinary surgeon. Some took three years to recover fully.
The couple were fined almost $28,000, to be paid to the SPCA.
Crown lawyer Stephanie Edwards said the timing of many of the photos taken after the first day was not significant. The length of the ban sent an important message to breeders, she said, and the fines were at the "conservative" end of the scale.
