Community work for killing neighbour's dog

A dog owner was crying in court while the woman who killed the family pet was sentenced to community work.

Henrietta Tania Campbell, 47, said she used an air rifle to scare a dog off her property but she was convicted in a defended hearing of ill-treating the neighbour's family pet, Pogi, and firing an air rifle near a house.

Defence counsel Serina Bailey said at the sentencing in Christchurch District Court that Campbell had previously lost a litter of kittens to a dog attack and was under stress.

She did not know it was her neighbour's dog and meant to scare it, not kill it, she said. After the dog was shot it walked down the drive, collapsed and died, so did not suffer for long.

She said it was not a cruelty matter, just extremely unfortunate.

Campbell was extremely remorseful, and had written a genuine apology letter to the owners, she said.

She reacted in a strong way with an unfortunate outcome.

Judge David Saunders said the victim impact report said Campbell had killed a loved dog. The owners offered an element of forgiveness, but he said it was an insensitive action by a person who used an air rifle.

It was not the same dog that killed the kittens, but he acknowledged that she could have been worried about having a dog on the property.

He said it was unwise to take a firearm with her, as there was potential for harm to people. Parliament had been asked to consider air rifles being put on a restricted list.

The air rifle was used without reasonable excuse, as an act of cruelty, he said.

He ordered a payment to the victims of $520, and $50 each to two witnesses at her defended hearing for their expenses.

Judge Saunders sentenced her to 150 hours community work and issued an order for the destruction of the air rifle.

- NZPA