Owner ignored his dog's crushed spine

A pet bulldog with a broken spine was left untreated by its owner to drag itself around on its front legs on a rural Far North property before it was finally put down by an SPCA inspector.

The owner of the nine-year-old American-type bulldog, David John Simpkin, aged 40, a sickness beneficiary, of Waiotehue, 30km south of Kaitaia, admitted a charge of wilfully ill-treating the dog between March 26 and May 21 this year, when he appeared in the Kaitaia District Court yesterday.

The charge, laid by the SPCA under the Animal Welfare Act, carries a maximum penalty of three years jail and/or a fine of up to $50,000.

SPCA prosecutor Jim Boyd told the court the dog, known as Mack, was found on May 21 by an animal welfare inspector lying on coarse gravel partly under a house on its owner's property.

The rear part of the dog's body was wasted to emaciation from a point between its shoulder blades.

Mr Boyd said the rear section of the animal's body lay at an unusual and twisted angle. It appeared the dog had a broken spine.

It was very anaemic with laboured, shallow breathing, was highly distressed and appeared to be near death.

Mr Boyd said the dog was promptly put down with its owner's agreement.

A post mortem confirmed Mack's spine was most likely crushed.

Simpkin told the SPCA he had come home after being away at Easter about eight weeks earlier and found the dog stuck in a nearby swamp, distressed and howling in pain.

He thought it might have been hit by a car and took it home to give it a chance to get better, but said he couldn't afford to take it to a vet and he had no faith in vets.

Simpkin said he put the dog outside his house after several days when it lost control of its bowel and bladder.

Simpkin had asked friends to shoot the dog but they did not come back to do it, and he did not take it to their properties.

Judge D. J. McDonald remanded Simpkin on bail until July 28 for a probation report and sentencing.

Outside the court, Mr Boyd said it was one of the worst cases of animal cruelty he had encountered in more than 30 years as an animal welfare inspector.

"The suffering this animal went through was totally unnecessary."

Mr Boyd said the defendant was offered help to pay veterinary fees, and friends had offered to put the dog down, but those offers were not taken up.