A Hawke’s Bay woman has been charged with ill-treating a dog, by failing to provide him with proper and sufficient food and adequate and timely health interventions, which resulted in his death.

Kura Munro was found guilty after a one-day trial in October, and was sentenced on Monday at the Napier District court to nine months’ supervision, disqualified from owning dogs for five years, and ordered to pay $740 reparations.

The case began in July 2018 when SPCA received information that a dog owned by the defendant had died of starvation. A search warrant was executed at the defendant’s property and the body of Whero, an adult, brindle crossbreed dog was discovered. His body was found still chained to a wooden kennel in the corner of the back yard.

Whero appeared to be in extremely thin body condition, and his hips, ribs, and spine were all clearly visible. Inspectors seized his body for veterinary examination and necropsy.

The examination revealed the extent of Whero’s emaciated body condition. There was gross evidence of serious fat atrophy throughout the body, including his bone marrow, which is reportedly the last area to be depleted of fat reserves.

Whero also had haemorrhagic gastro enteritis, as well as hookworm eggs in his faeces. There were faeces stuck to his rectum which contained digested blood, and there was blood oozing from his gums around his upper teeth.

The pathologist concluded that Whero would have undergone weeks to months of prolonged catabolism to reach the state he was in, and that the hookworm enteritis would have likely contributed to his condition, but was unlikely to be solely responsible.

The combination of starvation and the suspected gastric ulceration and blood loss would have caused severe discomfort, and would have been obvious to a layperson.

When interviewed, the defendant said that she checked Whero’s water every day, and he had appeared fine to her, until the day before she found him dead. She later admitted that she had noticed that he was getting skinny around two days before he died, but did nothing about it.

She also said that she did not feed or check on Whero herself because it was too cold in the morning before going to work, and it was dark in the evening when she got home. She claimed that her ex-partner, whom she had recently separated from, was responsible for feeding Whero when he went to the property daily to look after the children.

Her ex-partner denies this, and enquiries revealed that for several weeks leading up to Whero’s death, he was not there for periods of time, although he was there in the days before Whero died.

“It’s unbelievable to think that a person would treat an animal like this. In the last weeks of Whero’s life he was essentially a prisoner on a chain, at the total mercy of his owners and unable to move or get free for food,” says Andea Midgen, SPCA CEO.

“Why a person would treat their pet like this is beyond comprehension.”

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