CCTV footage has shown the moment a dog owner threw her Maltese Shih Tzu off the top of a multi-storey car park in Australia.
The dog, named Princess, had to be put down after she was taken to a vet by a passerby who found the animal in the car park of the Westfield Whitford City shopping centre in Perth, western Australia, in April 2022.
The passerby assumed the 10-year-old dog, which fell nine metres, had been hit by a car due to the seriousness of its injuries – which included possible internal haemorrhaging, brain injury, and spinal and pelvic trauma.
Amy Judge, the 26-year-old owner of the dog, was jailed for 12 months on Tuesday and banned from owning an animal for 10 years.
She admitted throwing her dog from the top storey of the car park in the weeks after the attack and said she “did her a favour because all I did was hurt her and abuse her”.
Judge, from Clarkson in Perth, wrote: “I can’t live with the guilt, I threw my dog off the top story (sic) of a shopping centre car park and watched her fall to her death but she survived and needed to be put down due to how badly I injured her.”
The post, which attracted 112 comments, continues: “I killed my dog and I need the truth out in the open… it’s tearing me apart I can’t live with the lies anymore… I did her a favour because all I did was hurt her and abuse her.”
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She adds: “Now everybody knows the truth and I can put my mind at ease knowing I no longer have to live with all the lies.”
Scott Frost, her 23-year-old partner, who was present during the incident, was fined 2,500 Australian dollars and banned from owning animals for three years for failing to seek veterinary care for Princess.
CCTV footage played in court shows Judge appearing to argue with Frost, repeatedly dangling Princess over the side of the roof, and allowing the animal to walk along the roof edge for around eight minutes.
The footage then shows Judge throw Princess off the roof.
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A ‘planned, deliberate and intentional act’
A vet later checked Princess’s microchip and contacted Judge, who was listed as her owner.
Judge went to the veterinary practice with Frost to discuss the extent of the dog’s injuries and the cost of treatment, ultimately deciding to have her put down.
In sentencing, Magistrate Mark Millington said Judge had left Princess for dead in what he described as a “planned, deliberate, and intentional act”.
Kylie Green, inspector manager at the RSPCA in Western Australia, described the incident as the “most distressing” she had seen in her 11 years on the job.
She added it was a “callous and extremely confronting display of animal cruelty”.
Judge was jailed ten months for throwing her dog over the ledge and two months for unrelated incidents.
