Disgraced former Queensland greyhound trainer Tom Noble has escaped jail for using the "barbaric" practice of live baiting to develop a competitive bloodlust in race dogs.
Noble (69) appeared in the Ipswich District Court on Tuesday, having pleaded guilty to 15 counts of serious animal cruelty.
Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren said today the circumstances of the veteran trainer's offending were "somewhat notorious" and sentenced him to a head term of three years.
However, he ordered it be suspended for a period of five years.
The judge said Noble used piglets, rabbits and possums to develop a "bloodlust" in the racing dogs between August and October 2014.
In one instance, he said the destruction of the live creature, tethered to a mechanical arm that spun around a track at Noble's Churchable track, was "appallingly evident".
The distress caused to the animals when they were tied to the arm served to make them "more alluring" targets for the dogs, Judge Horneman-Wren said.
But he also deemed the man as unlikely to reoffend, noted he was the primary carer for his wife and acknowledged a litany of health problems suffered by the now-banned trainer.
"You are by no means the sole participant in these barbaric practices," the judge said.
Noble had also become "isolated and distressed" in the wake of charges being laid and received death threats, the court heard.
Outside, Friends of the Hound activist Carol Cardy said Noble's personal circumstances should not have led to him avoiding actual jail time.
"Lots of people have terrible times ... and they're not cruel to animals," she said.
RSPCA senior inspector for prosecutions Georgia Sakzrewski said the serious animal cruelty offence was introduced last year in response to the outrage over live baiting.
"Somebody who has done something so serious over such a long period of time, for them to receive three years and not go to prison, I would absolutely consider that to be a setback," she said.
