A 60-year-old woman who killed her neighbor’s dog and tried to get rid of evidence has been spared jail.

Susan Foster was found guilty of animal cruelty after she was caught on camera throwing poisoned meat over the fence into Colin Stark’s garden for German Shepherd Roxy to eat.

Mr. Stark had owned Roxy since the pooch was only 8 weeks old. The poor dog spent several days in agonizing pain before vets decided to end her suffering.

“We kept an eye on Roxy. She wasn’t being her normal self. She was lethargic, she would just lay there,” Mr. Stark said.

“Over the course of the day, she was getting worse and worse.

“We then took her to the vets and took samples of the meat, and he said ‘I think that’s poison.’”

A surveillance camera captured the moment Foster threw the chunk of meat laced with anti-freeze over the fence. Only hours later, she was seen trying to steal the camera to get rid of the evidence.

“I played it back after Roxy had been put to sleep, and on my laptop I could see something is coming over,” Mr. Stark said.

“I thought ‘Was that a bird or something’ and then I played it back slower, and you could see it was things being thrown over the fence.

“The camera’s got an alarm trigger, so it detects motion, and it set off a trigger on my phone at 1145pm on Saturday.”

He continued: “I looked at the alarm, and at first I couldn’t work out what it is.

“Then I realize it’s a hand, and it’s her hand going all over the camera, and then eventually, her face appears on the camera.”

Foster was convicted of adding lacing meat with poison and throwing it into a neighbor’s property, and another charge of causing a substance or drug to be eaten knowing that it was poisonous.

She was given a 26-week jail sentence suspended for 12 months. She was also ordered to carry out 15 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days, disqualified from keeping animals for one year, and ordered to pay $823 compensation to the dog’s owners, $2,707 in court costs, and $159 victim surcharge.

“We got justice, but very lenient justice,” Mr. Stark said. “We’ve got two dogs, and she wasn’t just trying to get rid of one of them, she was trying to get rid of both of them.

“With an intent like that, I think she should have got at least five years plus straight away. You look at America – you should see what they get.

“Nothing can bring Roxy back, she was a lovely dog. I think about her every day.”

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