ORANGE pig hunters, who were allegedly shot at and watched as their hunting dogs were shot in the head, walked away from Orange Local Court with fines on Monday.
Coen Kadic, 20, Jaye Jason Field, 21 and another man, who the Central Western Daily chose not to name, were illegally hunting pigs on the property of Dennis Hall and Stuart Hall on Gongolong Road in Coolabah, near Nyngan.
The trio were “road running”, which meant the two dogs, wolfhound cross bull mastiffs, were unleashed on the back of the utility.
The dogs jumped off the utility to chase after a pig heading towards the Halls’ property.
The farmers spotted the utility and fired a shot at the vehicle, police facts said.
The farmers then allegedly detained the trio until police arrived, but during the wait, Stuart Hall allegedly walked over to the two dogs and shot them in the head and told the hunters the pair did not allow hunting dogs on their property.
The trio’s solicitor Clive Hill said Field was the owner of the dogs and the utility, which was written off.
He asked the magistrate, Terry Lucas, to give his client a section 10 bond without a conviction because he had suffered enough.
“These three suffered a great deal of retribution at the hands of the property owners,” Mr Hill said.
“The dogs were of great sentimental value.”
Mr Hill said the firearms offences set out in the facts were more “life threatening” than they appeared and that the bullet went through the windscreen of the utility and missed the men by “mere inches”.
Kadic and Field did not have a clean criminal record and were both on section nine bonds at the time of the offences, but Mr Lucas directed no action to be taken on the bonds.
Mr Lucas did not convict one of the men because he had no previous criminal record but Field and Kadic were fined $300 each for hunting without a licence and another $300 each for entering private land to hunt animals without the consent of the owners.
“It’s quite hard to believe all of this happened for a dead pig,” Mr Lucas said.
The farmers have been charged with a range of firearm offences and animal cruelty and will appear before Nyngan Local Court this month.
