A wholly suspended sentence of three years' imprisonment for 15 counts of serious animal cruelty (greyhound live baiting over two months involving approximately 140 trial runs) was upheld where the offender was elderly, in poor health, the primary carer for his seriously ill wife, had pleaded guilty at an early stage, had lost his livelihood and social structure, and had been extensively vilified and threatened. There is no rule of thumb that serious animal cruelty must always attract actual imprisonment. The absence of comparable sentencing authority under s 242 of the Criminal Code (Qld) does not make a Crown appeal more difficult.
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