A woman who kept dogs in makeshift pens on top of "thick piles of faeces" was banned from owning dogs in Victoria while operating a large-scale puppy farm in South Australia, a court has heard.
Appearing in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday, Kerrie Maree Fitzpatrick was found guilty of 16 animal cruelty offences.
Fitzpatrick was found in possession of more than 300 animals at her Murray Mallee property in Parrakie after an RSPCA investigation in 2018, despite the local council permitting her to own no more than 100.
Representing the RSPCA, Peter Salu told the court that since 2017 Fitzpatrick had been prohibited from keeping any dogs in Victoria for 20 years and had been fined a total of $85,000 for prior breaches.
"It appears that there is no cross-vesting of matters relating to animals in Australia or across all of the states," Dr Salu said.
"As a consequence, Fitzpatrick simply picked up shop and moved to South Australia."
In his verdict, Magistrate Karim Soetratma detailed evidence that RSPCA workers had collected during multiple inspections of the property.
"There were also some makeshift mesh pens, and an elevated working dog kennel (an elevated kennel with a wire floor), underneath which were 30cm thick piles of faeces," he wrote.
The inspector also found a large shed where "there was no water in the pens, "nowhere clean for the dogs to stand" and "dogs sitting in empty containers in order to get off the mesh".
The inspector also found dogs drooling and trembling and a border collie running in circles within its pen continually.
Fitzpatrick's former partner, Colin Ross, who managed the farm, was fined $8,000 in 2021 for failing to comply with the direction of an animal welfare notice and ill-treating 10 border collies.
The judgement also detailed how some dogs appeared to be "shutting down completely" when interacting with humans.
"During the three to four hours the inspector was at the property, the inspector saw no evidence of any animals (other than free-ranging dogs running around) being exercised," Magistrate Soetratma wrote.
"With one exception, she considered every dog on the property was trying to avoid her."
The inspector also found a five-week-old pup "possibly born with no eyes", a border collie and chocolate Labrador with hair loss around their eyes, and "a French bulldog with an eye condition".
A veterinarian who was called to the property in 2018 found 80 per cent of the animals were "frightened or reactive towards unfamiliar people''.
They "considered it obvious that numerous dogs were suffering anxiety disorders, fear/phobia towards unfamiliar people, fear aggression, potential obsessive-compulsive disorders, chronic stress, and mental harm or suffering".
The expert said that when one dog was let out of its enclosure to exercise it did not display "neurotypical behaviour" for a dog that was "regularly handled or exercised".
"That dog appeared petrified, had to be carried out, and its exercise consisted of it running in a panicked state trying to find a spot to get into the kennels," the verdict said.
The veterinarian described one golden retriever sitting in its enclosure "like a statue, with dilated pupils" who they considered to be in "freeze/shutdown mode, fearful of unfamiliar people, and suffering stress and anxiety".
In his verdict, Magistrate Soetratma said "they had too many dogs to give each individual dog the one-on-one attention it needed" and "had failed to provide them all with acceptable living standards".
In January, the South Australian government and the RSPCA launched the first review into the state's Animal Welfare Act in 15 years.
Fitzpatrick will face a pre-sentencing hearing in May.
