A woman is fighting allegations she stole six puppies and their mother from a rural property while the owners were overseas.
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Chrys Jacinta Morrison, of Cape Clear, is charged with stealing a Jack Russell, named Molly, and her six three-week-old puppies from a Cressy property between April 1 and 3, 2017.
The dogs were padlocked in a cage and had been left in the care of a family member while the owners went on a three-week holiday to America.
The puppies had been sold and their prospective buyers had left $200 deposits.
According to the dogs' owner, his wife received a phone call while they were overseas notifying them Molly and the puppies were no longer at the property.
When the owners returned home "all the padlocks had been cut" and "the dogs were missing", the owner told the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Friday.
But eight months later, the owner said he received a text message from a man - who was Morrison's former boyfriend - saying he had one of the puppies and he knew who took it.
The owner told the court he took the puppy to the vet, got a DNA test and provided the report to the Rokewood Police Station.
Morrison's former boyfriend said Morrison had given him a Jack Russell puppy, which was six to eight weeks old, for his birthday in May.
He said he had seen Molly and the puppies at Morrison's house before he started a relationship with Morrison and she had told him she took the dogs while the owners were away.
"She said Molly was kept in a cage and it's skin was off her back. She was in pretty good condition, I thought," the man said.
He told the court Molly and the five other puppies were sold or given away. They have never been recovered.
After the man and Morrison ended their relationship, he contacted one of the owners because he "believed things weren't quite right. I was also a bit pissed off as well and I thought I should do the right thing".
During cross-examination, defence barrister David Cronin asked Morrison's former boyfriend if he had anything to do with loosening Morrison's wheel nuts, slitting sheep's throats on her property or putting human feaces in her letterbox, which he denied.
But he did agree he threw dead rabbits at her while she was driving in the Little Bridge Street car park.
The court was told Morrison had accused her former boyfriend of stealing a motorbike and "dobbed him in".
Mr Cronin put to the dogs' owner if one of his family members, who was an acquaintance of Morrison, stole the dogs he could be quite convincing, to which the owner replied, "yes".
The contested hearing was adjourned until April, where six prosecution witnesses are expected to be called to give evidence, while the DNA test results - which were unavailable on Friday - will be tendered to the court.
Morrison claims she gave her former boyfriend a puppy, but it was not the missing Jack Russell dog.
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