{"id":102053,"date":"2025-07-29T12:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T12:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/102053\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T12:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T12:33:14","slug":"south-australian-humane-animal-rescue-association-charged-with-ill-treatment-offences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/102053\/","title":{"rendered":"South Australian Humane Animal Rescue Association charged with ill-treatment offences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: This article contains distressing content about the alleged mistreatment of animals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The RSPCA will rehome more than 100 animals following their seizure from a property in Morgan across six months to early this year, itself the location of a charity registered for the humane rehoming of animals.<\/p>\n

Founders of the South Australian Humane Animal Rescue Association (SAHARA), Carole Morris and Shane Jones, have been jointly charged with 41 counts of ill-treatment of an animal and three counts of failure to comply with an animal welfare notice.<\/p>\n

The offending is alleged to have taken place between September 2024 and February 2025.<\/p>\n

Ms Morris and Mr Jones appeared in person at the Berri Magistrates Court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The pair, represented by defence lawyer Michael Lloyd, initially opposed the forfeiture of the animals.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Jay Pandya paused proceedings to give the pair time to deliberate with RSPCA’s legal counsel on their position.<\/p>\n

After what Magistrate Pandya described as “extensive negotiations” RSPCA’s legal counsel Simon Perrie told the court the forfeiture of the animals had been agreed upon.<\/p>\n

“The RSPCA will undertake to prioritise the rehoming of these animals whenever possible,” Mr Perrie said.<\/p>\n

“We will provide a list of any animals that do end up being euthanased, and we will provide that information as part of the disclosure.”<\/p>\n

\"Berri<\/p>\n

Carole Morris and Shane Jones have been jointly charged with 41 counts of ill-treatment of an animal. (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

According to court documents, RSPCA inspectors seized 23 horses, two dogs, one camel, eight cattle, 74 chickens and one goat from the Morgan property between October 2024 and February 2025.<\/p>\n

Since coming into the RSPCA’s care, one dog, two horses and five of the cattle had been humanely euthanased or suffered unassisted deaths and therefore were not part of the forfeiture application.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Pandya told the court she was “pleased to hear” the application made by the RSPCA was not opposed.<\/p>\n

Criminal charges laid<\/p>\n

According to court documents, multiple animals were humanely euthanised by the RSPCA, including a pig which was found to have a “severed spinal cord”.<\/p>\n

A horse which had a “maggot-infested wound” and a dog which had a “severe dental disease” were also euthanased.<\/p>\n

Court documents found multiple animals were rated a two out of nine on the body condition score system and were described by the RSPCA as “severely emaciated”.<\/p>\n

SAHARA is a registered charity under the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).<\/p>\n

The charity had received $515,971 in donations and bequests according to their 2023 annual information statement submitted to the ACNC last year.<\/p>\n

Under South Australia’s amended Animal Welfare Act those found guilty of animal cruelty face maximum fines of up to $250,000 and\/or 10 years jail for the aggravated ill-treatment of an animal.<\/p>\n

The pair will have their first criminal charges hearing in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning: This article contains distressing content about the alleged mistreatment of animals. The RSPCA will rehome more than…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":102054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24144,4740,66387,66392,66390,50,66389,4742,66386,66388,66393,66391],"class_list":{"0":"post-102053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-animal-cruelty","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-carole-morris","11":"tag-ill-treatment-of-an-animal","12":"tag-murraylands","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-riverland","15":"tag-rspca","16":"tag-sahara","17":"tag-shane-jones","18":"tag-south-australian-humane-animal-rescue-association","19":"tag-welfare-notice"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114936545764551569","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}