{"id":6051,"date":"2023-06-30T17:32:44","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6051"},"modified":"2023-06-30T17:32:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:32:44","slug":"couple-upset-offenders-who-fired-arrows-into-bull-go-unpunished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6051","title":{"rendered":"Couple upset offenders who fired arrows into bull go unpunished"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story contains a distressing image of an injured animal.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The owners of a bull that was fatally wounded by arrows fired from a crossbow are devastated the perpetrators have escaped conviction.<\/p>\n

Two men, who were 18 and 22, eventually pleaded guilty to ill treating the bull and a steer in the early morning attack in August 2021.<\/p>\n

They were discharged without conviction on Thursday in the Porirua District Court.<\/p>\n

Donald Love said he and his partner, Heather Phillips, were disappointed the offenders had “got away with a slap on the wrist”.<\/p>\n

“It’s been two years and multiple court hearings, and it’s left us wondering what was the point, really. It’s still pretty raw for both of us.”<\/p>\n

After finding the fence cut, Love located the bull, Ferdinand, at the back of the paddock “in a pitiful but alert state” with arrows protruding from his neck and stomach and a deep wound on his shoulder.<\/p>\n

\"Bull<\/p>\n

Donald Love took this photo moments after finding the injured bull.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Supplied \/ Donald Love<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The animal had to be euthanised by his partner’s brother, as it was unsafe for the vet to use drugs.<\/p>\n

Discovering injuries on the steer the next day required another vet visit and added to their trauma, he said.<\/p>\n

The couple pieced together the sequence of events from security camera footage and the culprits were arrested in September.<\/p>\n

Both maintained “not guilty” pleas until May 2022, when the younger offender admitted his part.<\/p>\n

The older man eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in October.<\/p>\n

In his victim impact statement, Love said the protracted legal process had left them both with “a sense of betrayal”.<\/p>\n

Animal rights organisation SAFE said the offenders should have been convicted.<\/p>\n

Its spokesperson Anna de Roo said it was “a deliberate, depraved attack on an animal”.<\/p>\n

“Aotearoa talks a big game about its animal welfare standards. But this case just shows how little regard the justice system has for animals and their well-being.”<\/p>\n

Fewer than one percent of animal welfare complaints each year led to prosecution, she said.<\/p>\n

“Even when perpetrators are prosecuted, the penalties are often disturbingly light.”<\/p>\n

Cases like this showed why a commissioner for animals was “urgently needed”, in her view.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story contains a distressing image of an injured animal. The owners of a bull that was fatally wounded by arrows fired from a crossbow are devastated the perpetrators have escaped conviction. Two men, who were 18 and 22, eventually pleaded guilty to ill treating the bull and a steer in the early morning attack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6053,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051\/revisions\/6053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}