A man has admitted animal cruelty after "severe malnutrition" contributed to the death of his dog, which a court heard suffered through days of extreme discomfort.
"That animal obviously died in severe pain and agony, being left alone on that property. And that's a regretful, completely avoidable outcome," prosecutor Jack Hill said on Wednesday.
The deceased animal, the Galambany Circle Sentencing Court heard, was also missing an eye.
The dog's owner, Michael Claude McBride, admitted numerous charges, including aggravated cruelty to animals causing death and cruelty to animals.
Summarising the case, Mr Hill said an RSPCA inspector found the deceased dog, a terrier-cross named Coffee, at McBride's home in December 2022.
The inspector entered the backyard on the 35-degree day to the smell of a "decaying animal". He would find Coffee in the grass, in a backyard without food or water in sight but only empty containers.
An examination concluded the dog had been dead for three or four days and that "severe malnutrition" contributed to organ failure and its eventual death.
Another dog, named Coco, was also found alive in the backyard.
McBride, 44, wiped away tears as facts surrounding his charges were read out for the court.
Asked to explain what had happened, the man said he left the two dogs at home in the care of a friend while he travelled interstate for a funeral.
But he stayed away longer than expected, not returning home for about two months.
"When I got back my friend wasn't there, my dogs wasn't there," the man said.
He could not explain why Coffee's eye was missing.
The case against McBride was ultimately that feeding and providing water to the dogs was his responsibility.
"It does strike me that the criminality and culpability is really affected by what's being said, if it's accepted as being truthful," magistrate Alexandra Burt said regarding McBride's explanation.
McBride has also admitted unrelated charges, including common assault, drink driving and refusing to undergo a screening test.
The man was caught drink driving at nearly five times the legal limit, only two hours after police had placed him in a taxi to get home.
"With that amount of alcohol in his system, he may well have caused a severe injury or death to himself or an unlucky member of the public," the prosecutor said.
The magistrate described the drink driving charge, in the context of McBride being a repeat offender, as unacceptable.
"You've got a real issue with alcohol," Ms Burt said.
"My worry is unless you deal with that in a real meaningful way, you're going to be a risk to the community in terms of driving."
McBride told the court he was committed to addressing the issue and had recently shown he could abstain from alcohol.
"This has been going on too long. I'm at the age where I'm sick and tired of it," he said.
Instead of sentencing the man, Ms Burt adjourned the matter so McBride could show his commitment to change by engaging with rehabilitation services.
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