Elderly couple on the run with 100 dogs in a trailer.

[Unamused Cat]

Elderly couple flees animal abuse trial with dozens of dogs in Australia.

Australians have been told to be on the lookout for a couple who are on the run with dozens of abused and mistreated dogs in a trailer.

Joseph Higham, 66, and his wife, Margarete, 73, fled a court in Adelaide, South Australia, last week, after being found guilty of 11 counts of animal cruelty.

They were convicted in their absence after failing to attend court and are said to be chronic "hoarders" of pets, keeping so many dogs that they cannot possibly care for them all.

They were believed to be driving south into neighbouring Victoria, or possibly New South Wales, with an enclosed metal trailer containing up to 100 dogs. Police have issued a warrant for their arrest.

Among the 170 dogs found in their care during RSPCA raids in 2006 and 2007, many were in an appalling state, suffering from the skin disease mange, fleas and worms. Some had badly infected wounds and 70 had to be destroyed.

One dog was so bald and black from mange that its breed was indiscernible, a vet told the court.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...Australia.html

[Lizard]

Mange, fleas, and worms. Do these people not have the first clue as to how miserable these parasites can make an animal's life? Or how easily treatable the conditions are?

I know! Let's infect them with scabies and rub poison ivy all over them (especially their genitals, what the hell) and give them horrible sunburns. Feed them something just bad enough to give them horrible squirts (and cramps, that would be an added bonus). Afterward, let's tell them the treatments are available, but, oops, not to them. Cuz, you know, that would be sorta funny. Or at least fair, all things considered.

[Unamused Cat]

Captured





ONE of Australia's worst dog hoarders has been arrested in western Victoria with about 100 canines in tow, weeks after fleeing the law in South Australia.
Margarete Higham, 73, was today arrested at a property at Casterton, about 70 kilometres east of Mt Gambier.

Higham and her husband Joseph, 67, were last month convicted in their absence in the Adelaide Magistrates Court of 11 counts of ill-treating animals.

Those charges arose from separate RSPCA raids on properties near Swan Reach and Eudunda in 2006 and 2007.

RSPCA officers seized 120 dogs, another 70 were destroyed, 70 left at the properties and 15 were given to new homes.

The Highams both face possible jail terms once returned to South Australia.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...-29277,00.html

[Dakota Valkyrie]

:surprised: I could barely tell that was a dog... much less the breed.

[Death Angel]

Speaking of mistreated dogs i saw this yesterday