A South Australian woman previously convicted of animal cruelty will face court tomorrow after being charged with breaching a court order that limited the number of dogs she was allowed to have.
Kerrie Fitzpatrick, 48, was handed a suspended jail sentence in August after being found guilty of 16 animal cruelty offences for keeping 300 dogs on a breeding farm in horrific conditions.
As part of her sentence, she was given a $500 good behaviour bond for three years, ordered to not have any dogs other than her two pets at the time, and told not to sell any animals.
In October, the RSPCA raided Fitzpatrick’s property in Lewiston, on the far northern outskirts of Adelaide, and seized 86 dogs and puppies that were allegedly in her care.
“Ms Fitzpatrick has been on our radar for some time, and this is an example of RSPCA South Australia performing its duty of care and actively enforcing prohibition orders,” RSPCA South Australia’s Chief Inspector Andrew Baker said in October.
“Ms Fitzpatrick was on the premises yesterday and we will be alleging that she is the sole owner of the property and that the dogs were in her custody, which puts her in breach of her court order.”
Fitzpatrick is due to face the Elizabeth Magistrates Court tomorrow.
Before her sentencing in August, the court heard Fitzpatrick had multiple convictions in Victoria, where she was handed a 10-year ban on working as a breeder before she moved to South Australia to do the same thing.
“If there was anyone who should have been obsessed about not being involved in a dog-selling business, it was you,” Magistrate Karim Soetratma said.
12-year-old boy builds Lego wheelchair for dog born without legs
Gracie is a puppy who due to a birth defect was born without her front legs. She was immediately dumped by her owners but before eventually ending up in a vets office. At the time, the little puppy had lost patches of hair and had maggots crawling on her but she did not lose her will to live. Gracie was slowly nursed back to health and her life turned around completely when she was adopted by a loving family who instantly fell in love with the puppy even despite her disability.
The puppy was adopted by the Turney family that also happens to run an animal shelter. They had already adopted one paralyzed dog before and had experience in taking care of a disabled pet.
Naturally, Gracie had trouble walking but was too small for a wheelchair so the family had to come up with some sort of a solution.
That’s where 12-year-old Dylan came to help – the boy used LEGO bricks to make a wheelchair for Gracie.
A LEGO wheelchair was perfect for the rapidly growing puppy – it was cheap and easy to adjust.
With a little trial and error, Gracie got the hang of the wheelchair.
Soon enough she was running around like any little puppy her age!
Eventually, as Gracie got bigger, Dylan added bigger wheels to the wheelchair.
The puppy got an “adult” wheelchair as she got older.
Gracie’s story proves that any puppy can live a happy and fulfilling life with the help of caring and loving owners.
Leave a Reply