A mother of four who cruelly threw her emaciated dog off a cliff because she could not afford to put the pet down will spend at least seven months behind bars.
Kaylah Jade Williams, 34, showed little emotion as Magistrate Mark Douglass handed down the sentence in Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday.
He previously pleaded guilty to torturing and causing the death of Zoe, a 13-year-old bulldog, after trapping the dog in a kennel and throwing her over the edge near Clive Bissell Drive in Mount Keira, near Wollongong, south of Sydney, in January 2023.
Judge Douglass acknowledged on Wednesday that Williams had been unable to pay for Zoe’s euthanasia after the dog developed a tumour and became emaciated.
But he said his “callous indifference to a living creature” warranted a prison sentence and sentenced Horsley’s wife to 12 months in jail, with a non-parole period of seven, Illawarra Mercury reported.
“To intentionally leave a dog inside a kennel, transport it by trailer to the area… and then tip the kennel over the edge of a very steep slope offends our community’s basic sense of humanity and decency,” he told Williams.
Judge Douglass described her behaviour as devious and rejected Williams’ claim that she had placed Zoe at the bottom of the cliff in the hope that someone would help the pet.
He said it defied logic that someone would put the dog there if they expected it to be found.
Wollongong mother-of-four Kaylah Jade Williams (pictured) was jailed on Wednesday
The court heard the area was not remote and was not somewhere where the cliff with Zoe inside could easily be seen.
The bulldog was found by a jogger who heard her howling from inside the cliff the next day.
She called the police when she saw Zoe was trapped in the kennel.
SES crews rescued Zoe, who was unable to lift her body and had a large tumour with an open wound.
She was so sick that a vet had to put her down to end her pain.
An investigation found that Zoe had been spayed in 2015 using Williams’ partner’s details on a vet’s records.
Kaylah Jade Williams showed little emotion as she was sentenced Wednesday
An SES team (pictured) removed the pet from the area and discovered he was unable to lift his body and had a large tumour with an open wound.
A neighbor said she saw a distressed bulldog in a dirty kennel at 5 a.m. on Jan. 21, but when she checked the next day, the dog was gone.
CCTV footage obtained by police showed a silver Honda CRV with a dog kennel on its trailer reversing out of Williams’ partner’s property two hours later, the court heard.
When the car returned an hour later, there was no kennel in the trailer.
Following a 15-month investigation, Williams was arrested in April and later pleaded guilty to torturing, beating or causing the death of an animal.
Kaylah Williams (pictured) took her bulldog Zoe to a cliff and threw the dog, who was trapped in a kennel, off a cliff near Wollongong in January 2023.
Williams’ lawyer, Lewis Etheredge, told the court his client had good prospects for rehabilitation and his focus was on his four young children.
He said Williams had no mental health issues and was fully rehabilitated from his previous drug problems.
Judge Douglass took into account the length of time the dog suffered, the severity of its injuries and the level of distress Zoe was in when he passed sentence.