Dog owner could face jail after 'scared, malnourished' pet found living in own filth
Tom Tuite
A man faces sentencing after animal welfare inspectors last year found his scared, malnourished Dobermann confined in a squalid cage without fresh water, mired in her own excrement, at a Dublin property.
Richard Vynsiauskas, originally from Lithuania but with a residential address at Old North Road, Coldwinters, failed to turn up for his scheduled hearing at Dublin District Court on Friday.
Judge Anthony Halpin convicted him in his absence and issued a bench warrant to bring him before the court to be sentenced.
He faces prosecution under the Animal Health and Welfare Act.
It follows an inspection by the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA), which had to retrain the seven-year-old dog since renamed Delilah before she could be placed in a new home.
DSPCA inspector Shane Lawlor told prosecutor Danny Comerford BL that he went to the property on April 16th last year following an allegation that the dog was cruelly treated.
There was no one there when he arrived, and he found that the large Dobermann, weighing 45kg, was kept in a six-foot by six-foot cage with a makeshift kennel inside and a broken shelter.
The enclosure was covered in faeces and "the smell was extremely overpowering."
There was no clean water, and the dog came out of her kennel "very scared" and was suffering mentally. He described the Dobermann as "whale-eyed," a term to describe a frightened and nervous dog.
She was "pacing around, constantly standing in her own faeces, nowhere to sit or eat without standing or lying in her own waste." The conditions inside her kennel were the same.
The inspector told Mr Comerford that his chief concern was that the animal had nowhere to move and was very scared. She looked malnourished and had inadequate shelter or space to express her behaviour.
The accused agreed to surrender the dog.
The DSPCA witness said a Dobermann, as an intelligent breed, responds well to training, but this dog was left "to waste away."
That can lead to boredom and aggression, and it took the DSPCA just over six months to correct her behaviour before she could be re-homed.
The court heard Vynsiauskas told him that he had "no time" to look after or let the dog out. The judge also noted she was not micro-chipped, the owner had no licence, and she had never been brought to a vet.
Photos of the dog's living conditions were furnished to the court. The accused could face a €5,000 fine and six-month imprisonment.
