Pet store owner escapes conviction despite 'appalling' treatment of more than 500 animals

  • 📰 abcnews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 30 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 15%
  • Publisher: 83%

Health Health Headlines News

Health Health Latest News,Health Health Headlines

Nicole Louise Bourne has been fined $40,000 after pleading guilty to dozens of offences. The court heard that her Toowoomba store had attracted hundreds of complaints as well as the attention of the RSPCA.

A Queensland pet store owner has been fined $40,000 for the "appalling" treatment of hundreds of animals, including cats, birds, mice and fish.No conviction was recorded against Nicole Louise Bourne and the magistrate reserved judgement on a prohibition order

Many of those charges were discontinued after legal negotiation and on Tuesday she pleaded guilty to 39 offences in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court just as a six-day trial was due to begin. She said during the 2020 raid the RSPCA found hundreds of sick and stressed birds living in either overcrowded or unhygienic conditions, as well as a dead finch in a water bowl.

The court was handed a psychologist's letter stating the 46-year-old was passionately dedicated to caring for animals and that the RSPCA's investigation had rocked her identity and sense of self.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 5. in HEALTH

Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

‘Refreshing’ for a UK politician to know what a woman isHobart City Councillor Louise Elliot says it’s “refreshing” for there to be a politician who knows what a woman is in the United Kingdom. This comes after UK Secretary for Health and Social Care Steve Barclay said he would be banning transgender women from women’s wards in hospitals, and will have their own space. “I think this really needs to be looked at a perspective of it is pro-women, it is pro-their needs and their desires and their fairness and their safety in the world,” she told Sky News host Andrew Bolt. “It’s really refreshing to have politicians that understand the importance in women’s spaces, whether that’s in hospital wards… in changerooms, sports, prisons, shelters, and also returning language back to women. “I think all sane people are fed up with terms like ‘chest-feeding’ … ‘the birthing parent’ instead of mother – it’s really time to bring that back.”
Source: SkyNewsAust - 🏆 7. / 78 Read more »