{"id":158010,"date":"2025-08-19T09:11:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T09:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/158010\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T09:11:13","slug":"magistrate-fines-pig-hunters-over-animal-cruelty-footage-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/158010\/","title":{"rendered":"Magistrate fines pig hunters over animal cruelty footage on social media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two pig hunters have been fined a combined $52,000 <\/strong>for <\/strong>animal cruelty in a landmark RSPCA prosecution.<\/p>\n

Warning: This article contains details of animal cruelty some readers may find distressing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley Thomas Lang, 25, and Marie Ann Parker, 22, faced the Bunbury Magistrates Court on Tuesday for sentencing, after they were earlier found guilty of a combined four charges of promoting a prohibited activity.<\/p>\n

The pair had also pleaded guilty to nine charges of animal cruelty in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Videos from Lang and Parker’s social media accounts showed them restraining wild boars near Manjimup, 290 kilometres south of Perth, before filming their dogs mauling the animals.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

Riley Thomas Lang was charged after posting to social media. (Supplied: Bunbury Magistrates Court)<\/p>\n

One clip showed Lang in his underwear in a dam, holding a boar by its leg as dogs attacked its face and ears.<\/p>\n

Another captured Parker pinning down a pig while speaking to the camera, before dogs surrounded the animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The offences happened between September 2022 and May 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Marie<\/p>\n

Marie Ann Parker posing with a dead pig in one of the social media clips. (Supplied: Bunbury Magistrates Court)<\/p>\n

Lang was found not guilty of one of the charges of promoting a prohibited activity, based on the video in question.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lang was fined $33,300, while Parker was fined $19,000.<\/p>\n

Both hunters had $10,000 of their fines suspended and were granted spent convictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The case is believed to be the first time the RSPCA has successfully convicted feral pig hunters of animal cruelty in Western Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Riley Thomas Lang (left) with defence lawyer Ross Williamson. (ABC South West WA: Ezra Kaye)<\/p>\n

Prosecution ‘not about stopping hunting’<\/p>\n

In sentencing the pair, Magistrate Joanne Andretich said she wanted to make it “abundantly clear” what the case was about.<\/p>\n

“This prosecution is not directed to stopping pig hunting, but the need to balance legal practices with animal welfare considerations,” Ms Andretich said.<\/p>\n

“There is a need to eradicate pests, but it needs to be done in a humane way.”<\/p>\n

Magistrate Andretich said the pigs showed signs of distress in most of the footage.<\/p>\n

\"Dogs<\/p>\n

Lang and Parker’s dogs attack a pig during one of their hunts. (Supplied: Bunbury Magistrates Court)<\/p>\n

“Death was delayed to enable the offenders to capture the moment; both did not care about the stress pigs were exhibiting,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t take the view they intended the pigs to be harmed, but that harm was inevitable in my view.”<\/p>\n

Magistrate Andretich said Lang and Parker had not shown remorse for their actions.<\/p>\n

Neither reacted as the penalty was handed down.<\/p>\n

Evidence posted to social media\u00a0<\/p>\n

The case centred on whether Lang and Parker had promoted pig hunting by posting videos online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Feral pigs are declared pests in WA and cause an estimated $100 million worth of damage every year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While trained dogs can be used to flush out pigs from bushland, using dogs to attack and “bring down” feral pigs is unacceptable under state codes of practice.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Marie Ann Parker was found guilty of animal cruelty and promoting a prohibited activity. (ABC South West WA: Pip Waller)<\/p>\n

The court was also shown an interview recorded by the RSPCA, where Lang admitted to catching around 400 pigs with his dogs.<\/p>\n

He told RSPCA South West Inspector Genna Haines that he caught and released the pigs so he could film them for his YouTube account.<\/p>\n

“That’s what people like to watch,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lang said.<\/p>\n

When asked if he thought his actions stressed out the pigs, Lang commented he was “doing the world a favour”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RSPCA happy with outcome<\/p>\n

Inspector Haines said it was the first time the animal welfare organisation had successfully prosecuted pig hunters.<\/p>\n

\"Genna<\/p>\n

Genna Haines helped investigate Lang and Parker. (ABC South West WA: Kimberley Putland)<\/p>\n

“We support the magistrate’s decision in the courts today,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This wasn’t a case against feral animal control or pig hunting; it was a case against blatant animal cruelty.<\/p>\n

“It’s a significant amount of money for anybody, and I hope it’s a general deterrent and sends the message out there that it won’t be accepted and it’s not accepted.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two pig hunters have been fined a combined $52,000 for animal cruelty in a landmark RSPCA prosecution. Warning:…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":158011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24144,4740,91793,91796,91799,91797,91795,50,91792,91794,91798,4742],"class_list":{"0":"post-158010","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-bunbury-magistrates-court","11":"tag-genna-haines","12":"tag-ian-weldon","13":"tag-joanne-andretich","14":"tag-marie-ann-parker","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-pig-hunting","17":"tag-riley-thomas-lang","18":"tag-ross-williamson","19":"tag-rspca"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115054660005846775","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158010","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=158010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}