A Buddhist beneficiary who could not bear to have a cat euthanased when it was disabled and in pain or discomfort has been prosecuted for failing to provide the animal with adequate veterinary care.
Alan Chant, 61, was discharged without conviction after pleading guilty to two prosecutions brought by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals part way through a defended hearing in the Christchurch District Court.
He admitted failing to ensure that the physical health and behavioural needs of the animal _ a neutered male black and white cat named Blackie _ were met, and failing to ensure it got veterinary care.
Blackie was among up to 40 homeless cats that Chant has been feeding daily for the last nine years. The animal was seized from the Peterborough Street property where he lived last September, under a search warrant, after an SPCA field officer spotted its condition.
Judge Gary MacAskill was shown a video of the cat just after its seizure, while it tried to move about with only one workable leg and other joints fused, and no movement in its neck. It was euthanased soon after.
The veterinary diagnosis described multiple fractures which had not been treated and a degenerative condition caused by a diet that was composed of liver.
The court heard evidence that the cat’s condition had deteriorated over several years, and Chant said he had obtained veterinary advice. He had given it prescribed medication and then treated it with deer velvet, green mussel extract, and later with small fragments of anti-inflammatory drugs.
Veterinarian Dr Ross Blanks, who examined the cat, said the pain suffered would have been brutally acute after its fractures went untreated, but later it would have been “at times severely debilitating and at worst unremitting severe pain”.
Chant said in evidence that he had become a Buddhist in 1971 and had been asked to be a monk. He could not kill anything personally, but in extreme cases where the veterinarian said it had to be done, he had agreed to cats being euthanased.
He said when Blackie’s condition deteriorated, he had made it comfortable. It had a range of foods but would eat only liver.
The hearing halted after about an hour for talks between SPCA prosecutor Richard Raymond and defence counsel Keith Owen, and Chant then pleaded guilty.
Judge MacAskill said he was satisfied the cat had suffered unnecessary pain or substantial discomfort and Chant had failed to ensure treatment after it received substantial injuries.
Chant was reluctant to have it euthanased but had otherwise done his best to provide it with care. This was not good enough, and he should have done much more.
He discharged Chant without conviction but said he also needed to be held to account for his actions. He ordered him to pay veterinary costs of $440, and $600 to the SPCA for the prosecution, and $260 in court costs. These will be paid from his benefit at $10 a week.
Source: www.stuff.co.nz
