A Goulburn Valley farmer has been slapped with a five-figure fine after pleading guilty to animal cruelty charges in a case a magistrate said was “gut-wrenching” to hear about.

Peter Alan Sandles, 64, from Invergordon, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to three counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, and one of cruelty to an animal by failing to provide veterinarian or other appropriate attention or treatment under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

He was fined $10,000 on the charges.

The court was told that in April 2023, Agriculture Victoria officers attended the property at Invergordon, to follow up an animal welfare report.

Agriculture Victoria officers observed empty water troughs and about 47 cattle in poor body condition and dehydrated.

Twenty cattle had recently died and seven were humanely euthanised by the officers.

There was also a dead cow with a horn penetrating the temporal and frontal lobe.

The aggravated animal cruelty charges did not relate to all the cows, but the prosecutor said a decision had been made to charge Sandles for the ones “with the strongest evidence”.

The aggravated cruelty charges related to not providing sufficient drink and adequate supervision to four cows which resulted in disablement; failing to provide veterinary attention, treatment or adequate supervision which resulted in the death of an animal; and failing to provide sufficient drink or supervision to eight cows that resulted in serious disablement.

The prosecutor told the court that when interviewed by authorities, Sandles said he thought a “change in feed” might be responsible for the animals dying.

However, he also told officers he had last seen water in the troughs for the cows “two or three days earlier”.

The prosecutor said the offences were aggravated by the fact that Sandles lived on the property and failed to supervise the animals, knowing they only had access to water in troughs.

Sandles’s solicitor Kristina Kutija told the court her client had been “scammed out of his life savings” of about $1 million through an online dating scam between 2012 and 2016, and as such had been declared bankrupt.

In 2018, the executors to his bankruptcy blocked Sandles’s farm water rights and feed, and for three months each year since they had continued to block him for several months, and he did not have warning of when this would happen, Ms Kutija said.

The defence solicitor told the court Sandles was now in charge of 19 cows, six bulls and some calves, and he intended to sell the animals by May next year and go into cropping.

In handing down his sentence, magistrate Simon Zebrowski said it was “gut-wrenching” to hear about the offences.

“They are living creatures, and they experience pain and distress,” Mr Zebrowski said.

“To put living creatures through that sort of suffering is inexcusable.

“I was sickened.”

Mr Zebrowski said he heard the reasons put forward by Ms Kutija, but said they were “not excuses”.

As well as the hefty fine, Mr Zebrowski ordered Sandles to be subject to monitoring for five years to ensure all cattle he owned received proper and sufficient supervision and drink.

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