Cruelty hearing told dog repeatedly hit
A GOLD COAST man claims he saw his neighbour hitting the family dog from his bedroom window after he was woken by the sound of yelping, a court has been told.
Daniel Ljubas is accused of striking his dog a number of times to the head, and leaving it tied to a tap by a short chain for almost an hour on June 12 last year.
But he denies the allegations and said he was only reprimanding the dog and struck it three times “on the a***” after it dug up pipes in the Southport backyard.
Ljubas allegedly told RSPCA inspector Summer Heath-Crilley the dog “doesn’t get smacked for nothing”.
He said the American staffy named Cash, who they had owned since December 2018, was cared for well and denied they were abusive. The dog was seized by the RSPCA.
Ljubas pleaded not guilty to failing to provide appropriate accommodation or living conditions and was cruel to an animal by causing it unnecessary or unreasonable pain.
His wife, Hannah Dyer, was also initially charged with failing to provide appropriate accommodation or living conditions but the prosecution offered no evidence and the charge was withdrawn.
The court was told two nearby neighbours called the RSPCA in the wake of the alleged attack, while a tradie working next to the Ljubas’ property also heard yelping.
Neighbour Bryce Harrington, who lived in the same complex, claimed he was woken by a dog in distress on the day of the ordeal.
Mr Harrington, who told the court he could see Ljubas’s backyard from his second-storey window, said it sounded like the animal was in pain.
He recounted seeing Ljubas, who had his back to him, standing over the dog striking it a number of times to the head with an open hand.
“It looked like there was a fair bit of force as his arms kept going pretty far back,” he said.
Mr Harrington told the court that at one stage Ljubas had both hands around the dog’s throat.
He said he heard a builder who was working on the property next door to the unit complex yell out “what are you doing to that dog”.
Under cross examination, Ljubas’s defence solicitor, Colin Greatorix, asked Mr Harrington whether he had any qualifications in dog behaviour, and if not, how could he state the dog was distressed.
Mr Harrington said he made an assumption based on noises he had heard before.
The trial continues.