Two animal cruelty cases, both involving kittens, before the
courts today were described as "chilling" by SPCA national
chief executive Robyn Kippenberger.
In Pukekohe District Court, Judge Sharon McAuslan jailed
David Hamuera Snook for two years and four months for tearing
the head off a kitten in front of his former partner and
children.
He was also banned from owning or exercising animals for five
years and Judge McAusland described the killing as "callous,
brutal and cruel".
And a man who admitted feeding five live kittens to his
pitbull was remanded for sentence when he appeared in
Gisborne District Court.
Te Ahu Aaron Mankelow, 31, pleaded guilty to five charges of
wilful cruelty to animals after he recorded himself on a
cellphone tipping out five kittens from a box for his dog,
and urging his dog to eat them.
Judge Robert Spear warned Mankelow that although community or
home detention was a possibility, he could not rule out
prison when he came up for sentence next month.
Ms Kippenberger said that the Pukekohe case was "indicative
of some of the worst cases of animal cruelty that we see
where it also involves cruelty and abuse on a domestic
front".
"This is a crime both against the kitten and against the
family," she said. "This guy has been sentenced with that in
mind.
"Obviously on the cruelty to the animal, we've been lucky to
get a year's sentencing.
"We're delighted that the sentence is greater because the
added abuse of the family who are losing a loved pet is just
as threatening and dreadful as physical violence to that
family."
Ms Kippenberger said it was known that those types of
violence did co-occur and in some cases violence toward
animals would come before violence toward people.
"But we do know that they sit very close together and so it's
always chilling to us when we hear of cases like this or of
cases like the kittens in Gisborne.
"People who do that are capable of greater violence to their
families and to others."
Ms Kippenberger said the SPCA had asked for a custodial
sentence in the Gisborne case.
"We believe that that's appropriate given the cold-blooded
nature of the killing of five kittens."
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