'I did her a favor': Woman sentenced to prison after tossing dog off parking garage roof to death
A judge this week sentenced a woman to serve prison time after she was captured on video throwing her 10-year-old dog off the second-story roof of an Australian parking garage, local officials said.
The woman's dog, a Maltese shih-tzu named Princess, suffered critical injuries and was euthanized after the act of violence, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Western Australia (RSPCA) reported Wednesday.
The incident took place earlier last year at in a parking garage for the Westfield Whitford City Shopping Center in Perth, the capital of West Australia, located near the southwest coast.
The dog's 26-year-old owner, Amy Lea Judge, of Clarkson, an outer northern suburb of Perth, was sentenced in Midland Magistrates Court Tuesday after being previously arrested on a charge of ill-treatment of an animal, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
‘This case was one of the most distressing I’ve seen in my 11 years as an inspector and was a callous and extremely confronting display of animal cruelty,’ the agency's Inspector Manager Kylie Green released in a statement after the sentencing. ‘Dogs can be so trusting, and they rely on their owners to keep them safe. I can’t think of a more disgusting betrayal of that trust."
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Video shows dog tossed 30 feet to her ultimate death
Princess fell nearly 30 feet after being thrown and was found by a passerby who, the RSPCA reported, assumed she’d been hit by a car.
The dog was rushed to a nearby vet "in a state of shock" suffering severe injuries including internal haemorrhaging, brain injury, and spinal and pelvic trauma. The vet, RSPCA reported, checked Princess’ microchip and contacted Judge, listed as her owner.
According to the RSPCA, Judge went to the vet to "discuss the extent of the dog’s injuries and the cost of treatment, ultimately deciding on euthanasia."
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Owner's Facebook post: 'I did her a favour'
Footage of the horrific act which Green said took place April 7, 2022 shows Judge in the parking garage apparently arguing with her partner, "repeatedly dangling Princess over the side of the carpark, and allowing her to walk along the roof edge, for a period of around eight minutes."
It goes on to show Judge walk back and forth from a car before launching the animal off the side.
"The offender confessed" she threw the dog on Facebook, saying she couldn’t ‘live with the guilt’, RSPCA reported, but later reportedly deleted the post and told an inspector her account had been hacked.
The post, obtained by USA TODAY, also reads, "I did her a favour because all I did was hurt her and abuse her."
'A planned, deliberate and intentional act'
During the sentencing hearing, the agency reported, Magistrate Mark Millington said Judge left Princess for dead in what he described as "a planned, deliberate and intentional act."
Millington said Judge displayed a lack of remorse and "consistently attempted to shift the blame and make excuses for her behaviour."
The judge sentenced her to 10 months prison for the animal cruelty charge and two months for "another unrelated matter," officials said. He also said she is forbidden from owning an animal for the next decade.
"Today’s outcome delivers some justice for the pain and terror poor Princess endured in her final hours," Green said.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Australian woman sentenced to prison for tossing dog off garage
