SPCA staff abused, threatened

A judge says people can expect a possible prison term if they abuse SPCA staff for doing their job.

‘‘SPCA officers should be able to do their job without fear, because we need them to,’’ Judge Lance Rowe told Carrie Anne Menafy in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday.

She was sentenced to six months’ supervision for behaving threateningly towards SPCA staff in Palmerston North on August 27.

The SPCA picked up her dog from people who were caring for it for her. There is no suggestion she had treated her dog badly.

She and her partner Jamie

Edward Smeath, along with a young child, went to the Palmerston North

SPCA office on

Napier Rd the same day upon hearing the news.

Menafy yelled and swore at staff, also making a throat-slitting gesture towards them, before throwing paperwork at the reception area on to the floor.

Smeath also behaved poorly, but was not sentenced yesterday because he has an unrelated charge of wilful damage – where he bashed in a windscreen with a golf club – to worry about.

The judge said the presence of Menafy’s young child was especially concerning.

‘‘What we do know about children is they grow up with their view of the world shaped by what their parents say and do.’’

Sentences for offending like this against SPCA officers could result in jail or electronic monitoring, which would have been on the cards if it were not for Menafy’s restorative justice meeting, where, in front of her child, she apologised, the judge said.

The judge said that was the way she should act in front of her children from now on.

‘‘This is an opportunity to find a new way to set a better example.’’

Menafy must also pay $50 in emotionalharm reparation, a sum agreed on with the SPCA officer at the restorative justice meeting.

Menafy yelled and swore at staff, also making a throatslitting gesture towards them.