The judge of the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court, Eitan Kornhauser, sentenced a woman, who was convicted of animal abuse and cruelty, to a suspended sentence and 6,000 shekels in compensation, after she threw stones at two dogs and one of them was seriously injured with skull fractures and he suffers from health problems.
According to the indictment, the accused encountered two Chihuahua dogs in a public yard in Tel Aviv.
The dogs roamed the place without a leash, without a collar and without an owner near them.
Under these circumstances, the dogs approached the accused, barked at her and sniffed.
Following shouts and screams from the accused, the dogs left the place.
Later, the accused picked up large stones from the ground, and walked to the end of a nearby path.
The dogs that were standing at the other end of the path, wandering and without a leash or collar, started running towards the accused.
The accused stood in her place, and waved her hand holding the stones.
The dogs in the yard in Tel Aviv, moments before the stones were thrown, photo: use is made in accordance with section 27a of the copyright law
At the point when one of the dogs approached a distance of about one to two meters from the accused, the accused threw a stone that hit his head, and then threw another stone at the other dog which did not hit him.
As a result of the impact of the stone, the dog suffered skull fractures.
"The overreaction"
Judge Kornhauser noted in his decision that the defendant's testimony in court was characterized by an extreme description of extreme anxiety, which she had following the encounter with the dogs, an event that even resulted in extreme reactions of body tremors, inability to function and hysterical crying.
"The possibility of such extreme and difficult reactions to dogs running towards the accused, while barking and snorting, cannot be ruled out, even if they are tiny dogs weighing only about 1.5 kg.
"At the same time, I was impressed that the accused testified in a highly suggestive way in which she sought to establish her being in a state of 'panic', which led her to grab stones and throw them at the dogs, while amplifying the description of the dogs' behavior and exaggerating her mental reaction. The accused's description of various parts during the incident undermine her credibility and establish the bias of her testimony," the judge wrote in his decision and added: "The defendant's purpose of protecting himself from a dog weighing about 1.5 kg, which a few minutes earlier was content with barking at her and left the scene in light of her screams, cannot be weighed against Causing several fractures in the dog's skull, one of them with penetration into the skull cavity, and the dog being in a state of semi-cum with no reaction to the environment."
The judge also noted that the defendant's behavior constitutes severe and merciless injury to the dog, causing unjustified and unnecessary suffering and torment.
This behavior is in contradiction to the world of values and morals of Israeli society, which are the basis of the need to protect animals.
They could not go on with their lives
In the arguments for the punishment, the accused's mother said that following the incident, the shaming she went through shaped and had a very strong effect on her behavior and that of her family.
"She and we had to deal with a media attack of false, one-sided shaming on television, in the press and on the radio. It included lies such as that we have a cache of rocks at home, that she is looking for dogs and cats to throw at them in the neighborhood. There were many threats and harassment on the Internet, on the phones, which reached to the place where she continued to live after that. They published our family's address on the Internet, they threatened to burn the house down. After a few days, I demanded that my husband install seven security cameras, because we were afraid that people would come to burn our house down. They threatened her with pouring acid on her face and stoning her child "We were terribly anxious, she and we, she was afraid to go out with her baby for a year and a half alone," said the accused's mother.
She added that: "She cannot continue to work in Israel online. Her livelihood was harmed so that even when she tried to be accepted by an international company, because she is in legal proceedings here in court, she was not accepted in the job. Today she has to settle for a job that does not match her skills and with a lower salary They also accused her, tried her, and punished her in a terrible way. The consequences of this event caused her and our family. She and her two children had to move to Portugal because they could not continue life here, and we have to stay here, far from her, unfortunately."
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