![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/FQTTFSV37FGITDHRCT24MPD2F4.jpg\")
\nThe 5-month-old pitbull-cross puppy, known as Patchy. Photo \/ SPCA<\/p>\n
Warning, this story contains some graphic details some people may find distressing.<\/p>\n
A woman has been banned from owning animals for three years after SPCA inspectors discovered a severely emaciated puppy with a hip fracture, a healed bullet wound in his leg and a stomach full of fish bones.<\/p>\n
The woman appeared in the Tauranga District Court on September 16, after pleading guilty to a charge of ill treatment and failing to provide proper and sufficient food to an animal.<\/p>\n
She was sentenced to nine months\u2019 supervision and 100 hours community work.<\/p>\n
SPCA inspectors were called to a property in June 2024 and discovered a five-month-old pitbull-cross puppy, known as Patchy, the SPCA said.<\/p>\n
The puppy stood with his right-hind leg off the ground and had an obvious limp when encouraged to walk. He was also severely emaciated.<\/p>\n
The inspectors took the puppy into their possession and transported him to a veterinarian.<\/p>\n
A veterinary examination, including X-rays, revealed a complete, displaced fracture of his femoral head (hip fracture), a bullet lodged in his leg, and his stomach filled with material which resembled bones or metal.<\/p>\n
The veterinarian concluded the fracture was the cause of ongoing severe pain and reduced the puppy\u2019s mobility.<\/p>\n
\nThe 5-month-old pitbull-cross puppy, known as Patchy. Photo \/ SPCA<\/p>\n
It was estimated to have occurred about two weeks prior.<\/p>\n
The bullet wound would have been painful at the time of injury, but was no longer causing pain, as it had healed.<\/p>\n
Due to the severity of his injuries and the severe emaciation caused by inadequate nutrition, the decision was made to humanely euthanise Patchy.<\/p>\n
A post-mortem exam revealed that his stomach was filled with more than 100 fishbones and large pieces of fish scales.<\/p>\n
SPCA CEO, Todd Westwood said the neglect of Patchy was unacceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cA puppy\u2019s early start to life is a time where it should be the most joyous. At 5 months old, this puppy was suffering in pain, misery and starvation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe owner had every opportunity to seek help from a veterinarian or SPCA for food or assistance with vet treatment but chose not to. As a result, Patchy\u2019s life ended before it even began.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defendant told SPCA inspectors she knew Patchy was in pain and put an antibiotic and paracetamol in his food.<\/p>\n
She said she didn\u2019t take Patchy to the vet because she couldn\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n
The defendant was also disqualified from owning all animals for a period of three years and ordered to pay reparations of $828 and $250 towards legal fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning, this story contains some graphic details some people may find distressing. A woman has been banned from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-28064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}