WARNING: This story is about the ill-treatment of animals

A woman with a long history of hoarding and ill-treating animals has been banned from owning any more before at least 2044.

Tatyana Kondratyeva was first disqualified from owning animals in 2014 after being convicted on animal welfare charges.

These stemmed from a visit by SPCA inspectors to her Auckland home in 2010, where they found dozens of cats confined to a single-bedroom unit and an “indescribable” stench.

Many of the cats were ill.

Kondratyeva was banned from owning animals for 10 years, but was convicted in 2021 of breaching that order.

Among the numerous animals and birds she was found with in 2021 was a cat named Boy, and a female cat called Sweetie and her three kittens.

In October and November 2021, Kondratyeva had visited several different vets seeking assistance for Boy, Sweetie and the kittens.

She used a false name because of the previous prohibition order.

A Court of Appeal judgment says that Kondratyeva did not follow the vets’ advice, which included admitting one of the kittens to 24-hour care, and euthanising Boy, who was emaciated.

“Boy and the kitten ultimately suffered what the referring veterinarian considered to be slow and distressing deaths,” the Court of Appeal said.

The SPCA searched the property shared by Kondratyeva and her partner on November 24, 2021, after obtaining a warrant because of animal welfare concerns.

During their search, the SPCA inspectors found between 200 and 300 hens, roosters and chicks, and a number of cats.

They found six hens and their chicks in cages so small they could not stand or extend their wings. Two had no water.

Five or six poultry birds and three cats were inside a house which was hot and smelt strongly of urine and littered with faeces.

Two roosters were in a bathroom in which more than 2cm of faeces had accumulated on the floor.

Two four to six-week-old kittens were found in a bag, with no food or water, and with symptoms of a viral respiratory illness.

A pet carrier contained two hens, a chick and a rooster. One of the hens was unwell and the rooster was later put down, with the vet saying it had suffered “severe and long-term pain and distress”.

A magpie was found in a small covered cage in very poor condition and with injuries consistent with long-term confinement.

A vet said it had experienced an “extended period of extreme distress” and it was put down.

Kondratyeva was charged with contravening an animal disqualification order, and ill-treating animals.

Both charges were laid representatively, meaning they covered multiple instances of the same offence.

Kondratyeva elected to be tried by jury, but changed her plea to guilty on the day the trial was due to start.

A judge later said this was a “calculated campaign to delay and to avoid the evil hour of sentencing”.

Kondratyeva was sentenced this year to 21 months in prison, which was commuted to home detention after a suitable address became available.

She appealed the sentence, arguing she should have got intensive supervision and community detention instead.

The Court of Appeal dismissed that appeal.

The court noted that a psychiatric report found that Kondratyeva had no history of mental illness, but that “unresolved grief” might be present in relation to an earlier medical condition and her father’s death in Russia.

The psychiatrist said she may have tried to cope with her losses and unresolved grief by trying to save injured animals, or animals which were going to be put down, even though she lacked the means to do so.

A new order disqualifying Kondratyeva from owning animals for 18 years, imposed at her most recent sentencing, still stands.