OneKind is disappointed by a Sheriff’s decision last week (22 July 2011) to return two ponies and a donkey to an owner convicted of neglect.
The OneKind Field Research and Investigations Officer reported the animals’ plight to the Scottish SPCA in August 2009, after he visited the steading near Dalkeith, Midlothian where they were being kept.
The OneKind officer found four ponies, two llamas and a donkey, living in darkness in a shed without lighting or heating. A dead llama was seen outside, apparently waiting to be buried.
On a second visit, the OneKind officer spoke to the owner and learned that he was a former circus owner. He told the officer that none of the animals ever went out of the steading. This, he said, was because the paddock did not have a strong enough fence to contain the animals, especially the llamas.
The Sheriff’s decision to return the animals came after a medical report said that the owner was fit to care for the animals. No fine was imposed. When the animals were removed two years ago, two ponies were humanely destroyed due to their condition. The llamas were never removed from their owner and no prohibition on owning llamas has been imposed.
And so, after two years of being cared for by the Scottish SPCA, these animals are to be returned to an owner who has been convicted under animal welfare legislation. OneKind is not interested in punitive measures but we believe that in all such cases, a ban on keeping animals should be the automatic penalty.
What is the justice system like? Absolutely astonishing that 1. animals can be treated in this way in the first place but 2. That a judge should see fit to not only BOT give this individual a life ban on keeping animals but give the llamas back to them. I am missing something or has society gone completely mad and heartless. I really don’t understand this at all. It’s a disgrace to the scottish justice system and the judge should stand down. Disgusting.
This is just crazy!! He obviously wasn’t looking after the animals in the first instance and will certainly not look after them any better now that he has been given them back. Where’s the justice??
This is jus unbelievable that a judge would return these animals back to this sick bastard!! The judge is also a sick bastard.. The Scottish government is a disgrace!!!!