Pet's ordeal shocks judge

A Christchurch man has been sentenced to three months' jail for "shocking and callous cruelty" to a dog.

Travis Brian Ford, 24, bashed the head of his already-malnourished dog Kimmy with a softball bat, taped her mouth shut, and left her to die on the Port Hills.

But Kimmy survived, prompting the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to launch an investigation to find the culprit.

In the Christchurch District Court yesterday, Judge Phillip Moran sentenced Ford to three months' jail for what he described as a shocking and callous act of cruelty.

Ford was also fined $2500 and banned from having a pet for five years.

If upheld on appeal - Ford's lawyer, Nicola Meikle, lodged challenges to both conviction and sentence - the jail term will be one of the most severe penalties imposed for animal cruelty in New Zealand.

Richard Raymond, for the SPCA, had told the court Ford had not only put Kimmy through an "appalling and terrifying ordeal" but also later mistreated her puppies, four of whom were found by an inspector locked inside a faeces-filled car without food or water.

"I know there is no end of human imagination about what people can do to vulnerable animals, but this is getting close to the top of the scale," he said.

Ms Meikle said jail was not necessary. Her client was a first offender who had continued to have contact with animals at his home for the past five months without further allegations of mistreatment.

The court heard that Kimmy went to a new family but never overcame the trauma of her experience and was eventually put down.

- NZPA