11 April 2025

A 51-year-old Port Kennedy man has been fined $3,500 for failing to seek vet care for his 11-year-old Labrador named Alethea who was suffering from multiple painful conditions.

He was also banned from owning animals for the next three years and ordered to pay almost $2,500 in legal and other costs.

Rockingham Magistrates Court today heard an RSPCA WA inspector attended Baldivis Vet Hospital in October last year to examine Alethea after she was picked up as a stray and taken to the vet by City of Rockingham rangers.

The inspector contacted her owner who claimed she must have escaped his backyard during a storm. He declined to surrender her to RSPCA WA, saying he owned and was responsible for her and her skin condition had started three months earlier. As Alethea’s entire body was covered in crusty lumps and open, weeping ulcerated lesions and she had a strong yeast-like odour coming from her skin, the inspector seized the dog due to suspected offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2002.

The offender said he realised the lumps were tumours and he had been treating them with Betadine. He also advised he noticed Alethea had been bloated on her side but she had not been to a vet for two years. He explained he had not taken her to the vet about her lumps as she was old and there would be nothing the vet could do other than pain management.

The inspector transported Alethea to RSPCA WA where a vet examination determined she had a severe generalised skin disease covering the majority of her body, which was causing significant pain and discomfort, she had mild ear infections, painful osteoarthritis and spinal arthritis, incurable and infected lymphoma, and concurrent pulmonary parenchymal changes and increased respiratory rate, which indicated that the cancer had metastasised.

She was provided with pain relief in an attempt to manage her chronic pain but was ultimately humanely euthanised as her quality of life was deemed unacceptable.

In sentencing, Magistrate Steven Malley told the offender as an animal owner, his responsibility was “strict”.

“[Alethea] wasn’t in great shape and can’t have been in great shape for some time,” he said.

RSPCA WA Inspector Manager Kylie Green said it was important for pet owners to understand that animal cruelty isn’t just deliberate acts of violence but also, and more often, failure to address their needs. “Alethea was in obvious pain with her skin condition and, as was revealed, in even more pain with cancer and arthritis,” she said. “It was her owner’s responsibility to take care of her and in this instance that meant taking her to the vet and he failed her miserably.”

The offender was sentenced under sections 19(1) and 19(3)(h) of the Animal Welfare Act 2002. He was found to have been cruel to Alethea in that she suffered harm which could have been alleviated by taking reasonable steps.

The maximum penalty for a charge of animal cruelty is a $50,000 fine and five years in prison.

The RSPCA relies on the community to report incidents of suspected cruelty and neglect. Report cruelty 24/7 on 1300 CRUELTY (1300 278 358) or at rspcawa.org.au.