Harsher prison sentences for New Zealand’s worst animal abusers will move one step closer on Thursday, when a new bill gets its first reading in Parliament.
Jail time will almost double – but some say it is still not enough.
Lance Crequer has spent time in jail for killing five dogs, and says he would do it again.
“I put the dogs in the boot of the car, and I took them to a bridge, and I threw them off the bridge,” he says.
“This woman came over the hill and saw me. I dropped the dogs, shut the boot, and left.”
Three of the puppies swept to their deaths down a 20 metre waterfall. Another two had to be put down.
Crequer pleaded guilty to wilful ill-treatment when he appeared at the Manukau District Court. He sought home detention.
Judge Anna Johnson took the rare move of imprisonment.
“Your actions were appalling, to say the least,” said Ms Johnson when she handed down her sentence.
“The animals must have suffered greatly before their death. You are convicted and sentenced to four months imprisonment, and you are disqualified from owning for a period of five years.”
That was 20 months ago. Today, Crequer doesn’t have any pets, but says he does have an excuse for what he did - he says he went to the SPCA for help, but they let him down.
“It was going to cost us so much to have these dogs fixed or dealt with or whatever, which we couldn’t afford” he says.
“Eventually I became so frustrated with not getting help from an organisation who are supposed to help us.”
Crequer says he decided he would “do it” himself.
The SPCA says his excuse is feeble.
“We do accept all animals, anybody that can’t look after them any longer we accept them,” says Auckland SPCA chief exectuive Bob Kerridge.
“We do ask for a donation. Sometimes we get it, sometimes we don’t. But we certainly don’t reject them,” says Mr Kerridge.
Mr Kerridge says for a crime like Crequer’s, he would like to see sentences of at least two years.
“That would send a message.”
The Government will introduce a bill to Parliament later this week, which will increase maximum sentences for animal cruelty from three to five years. It is a bill that has widespread party support.
The new legislation follows a number of recent horrific incidents, including the slaughter of 33 dogs near Wellsford, and the man who fed five kittens to his pitbull terrier.
Animal cruelty can lead to much more serious offending – murderer Antonie Dixon a case in point.
“His background was examined very carefully from a whole range of psychiatrists, from both defence and the Crown – the common element which all agreed was significant in the development of his personality and what he later did was cruelty to animals when he was a child,” said Crown prosecutor Simon Moore, following the trial.
Crequer says he regrets what he did, in that he had to go to jail and put his wife through hell. However he feels no remorse for what he did.
When asked what he would do if faced with the same situation again, Crequer says; “I’d buy myself a hammer, or a bullet, and put a bullet in them”.
Auckland SPCA CEO Bob Kerridge says attitudes like that show the Government’s new bill is too soft. Five years is not enough, he says - 10 years is the appropriate maximum sentence.