Woman Gets Jailed After Being Caught On Camera Throwing Her Dog On Parking Garage Roof
An Australian woman who was caught on cam throwing her dog off the top of a multi-story garage has been sentenced to 12 months of jail time.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the owner, a 26-year-old woman named Amy Lea Judge, was charged with ill-treatment of an animal and sentenced in Midland Magistrates Court on Tuesday, December 19.
10 months of Judge’s sentence is for throwing the dog, a 10-year-old Maltese-Shih-Tzu mix named Princess, over the garage roof, and two for unrelated incidents.
Sydney Morning Herald also reveals that aside from her sentence, Judge is also banned from owning any animal for 10 years.
Prosecutors labelled Judge’s actions as “egregious, callous and cruel”.
Judge’s partner, Scott Frost, who was present at the time of the incident, was fined $2500 and banned from owning animals for three years. This comes after the court was informed that he did not collect Princess and failed to seek immediate vet care for the dog after the incident.
The disturbing and tragic incident happened in April last year, and was captured on CCTV.
(You can watch the CCTV footage here. But please note that this video contains sensitive content that some people may find disturbing.)
The shocking CCTV footage showed the whole eight-minute ordeal where Judge repeatedly takes the dog to the ledge while wandering back and forth from her partner’s car.
After throwing off the dog, Frost drove away while Judge walked off like nothing happened.
The New York Post reports that the 10-year-old pooch fell nine meters after being thrown and was later found by a member of the public.
The person who found Princess assumed that the dog was hit by a car and immediately brought the dog to the nearest vet.
When the dog was brought to the vet, she was in a state of shock and sustained serious injuries, including possible internal hemorrhaging, brain injury, and spinal and pelvic trauma.
Judge was contacted by the vet thanks to Princess’ microchip. Judge and Frost went to the vet to discuss the dog’s injuries and the cost of treatment.
But due to how serious the injuries were, Princess had to be put down. After the incident, Judge admitted her crime and posted about it on Facebook (now deleted) and said she “couldn’t live with the guilt” and that she did Princess a favor because all she did was “hurt her and abuse her”.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Western Australia (RSPCA) Inspector Manager Kylie Green describes the incident as the most distressing she had seen in her 11 years on the job.
Green said, “Dogs can be so trusting, and they rely on their owners to keep them safe. I can’t think of a more disgusting betrayal of that trust.”
“Today’s outcome delivers some justice for the pain and terror poor Princess endured in her final hours. I hope it also sends a clear message to the community that intentional cruelty towards animals is extremely serious and won’t be tolerated,” she continued.
