City of Ballarat animal welfare officers have saved seven puppies and their mother from squalid living conditions at a house in Wendouree, charging their former owner with animal cruelty.
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The court heard the council workers attended the Marigold Street property on June 16, 2023, after they were advised of a Facebook marketplace advertisement listing six puppies for sale, in poor health condition.
Upon arrival, the officers saw an "emaciated" female Huntaway dog in the backyard of the property.
As the dog's owner, a 32-year-old Wendouree woman, was not home, the officers left a message.
The owner, who will not be named as she avoided conviction, later surrendered the dog named Shazza to the council.
When Shazza was taken to the vet she was found to have weighed 13.55kg.
The assessing vet found Shazza had a "grade 1 systolic heart murmur", grey gums, and showed several symptoms of starvation. Shazza was put on a feeding plan, wormed, and gained 14.83kg of weight in 33 days under vet care.
On June 19, 2023, the council officers returned to the address and saved a further seven puppies.
The officers were told by the woman that Shazza had had 12 puppies, three of which had died. She was not aware of how the puppies had died and did not seek veterinary care, the court heard.
At the back of the woman's property the officers spotted a "rancid enclosure" where the puppies were kept, which was "filled with faeces".
The puppies had fur missing, and skin lesions believed to be scolding from contact with faeces and urine.
The 32-year-old woman later surrendered another Huntaway puppy named Cookie to the Ballarat Animal Shelter on October 5, 2023. She told workers she could not feed the dog and that it "wasn't good with kids".
The puppy was in a poor health condition.
The 32-year-old woman, representing herself, appeared at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Monday to plead guilty to 19 animal cruelty charges.
She told the court she had issues affording to feed the dogs and had been trying to sell them as she couldn't look after them.
Magistrate Letizia Torres placed the woman on an order banning her from owning dogs for the next five years, as well as a six month good behaviour bond.
"I have to take into account how much these animals have suffered, and they were in a really bad condition whether you knew it or not," the magistrate said.
