Faith was a one-year-old kelpie. On September 23, near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, she was held underwater again and again, then beaten to death with a glass bottle. Her body was dragged behind a motorbike through the bush.
Today, the man who admitted doing this, 31-year-old backpacker Bradley Gavin Knoesen, was sentenced in the Kalgoorlie Magistrate's Court. He pleaded guilty. The magistrate called the killing a protracted act of cruelty. And yet he received a 12-month jail term that is fully suspended. He will not spend a day in prison. Prosecutors had asked for immediate jail, and the magistrate pointed to earlier Supreme Court decisions in animal cruelty cases.
I am an everyday advocate for dogs, not a lawyer. But I know a sentence like this tells people what a dog's life is worth. When Faith's killing, described as protracted by the court itself, ends in a suspended sentence, that message is clear, and it is wrong.
I am asking the Western Australia Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General to review this sentence and, if the law allows, appeal on the ground that it is manifestly inadequate. I am also asking them to push for stronger sentencing precedent in animal cruelty cases so that Faith's case is not used to justify the next lenient outcome.
Time matters. Appeal windows are short, and today is the first day of that clock. Please sign and share before it closes.
Faith could not speak for herself. We can.
