A couple who left their 24 cats for three days in the back of a panel van in Hobart have been ordered to pay the RSPCA the more than $7,000 it cost to rescue the animals and nurse them back to health.
Jade Joy Maree Ellery and Genevive Rodriguez have also been banned from owning more than one neutered cat each for the next five years and will spend the next nine months on supervised probation.
The women pleaded guilty in the Magistrates Court in Hobart to two counts each of having care of animals and using management methods likely to cause unreasonable pain or suffering, and three counts each of doing an act which caused pain to an animal.
The court heard the cats were left in cages in the back of the panel van on the roadside for three days. They had little food and no water.
When the RSPCA rescued them after two days following a tip from the public, some of the cats had burns on their paws from the urine and faeces they had been forced to stand in.
Some of the cats were emaciated.
The women, aged in their 30s, told the court they had been moving home from Tullah on the West Coast last year when the van broke down and they had no means to fix it.
When they returned after three days, the RSPCA had already taken the cats into care.
The women told the court they loved their cats and had always cared for them, but Magistrate Chris Webster questioned whether it was possible to love that many cats at the same time.
There's help for people struggling with their animals: RSPCA
The RSPCA said they were happy with the result and it should send a strong message to others who failed to provide the basic necessities to their animals.
Speaking outside the court, RSPCA prosecutor Glen Carey said the conditions in the van were "very bad".
"They had no ventilation whatsoever, they were all in cages fairly tightly packed in cages unfortunately, and they did get injuries," he said.
"I hope that other people do recognise that we can help people when they are having problems with their animals as far as being able to feed them, being able to water them, and properly look after them.
"There is help there, they've only got to ask."
The RSPCA will try to rehouse the cats.
