A finding has been handed down in the case of a woman accused of baiting and killing eagles and other birds of prey at a Violet Town property.
Dorothy Sloan, 84, of Violet Town, was found guilty of baiting wedge-tailed eagles and other birds of prey using other dead birds and animals doused with a chemical generally used on crops.
In the nine-day hearing — which ended in December — Sloan pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of killing wildlife by poison — including baiting 23 medium-sized raptors and 11 wedge-tailed eagles.
She also pleaded not guilty to seven counts of aggravated cruelty that resulted in the deaths of six wedge-tailed eagles and a whistling kite because of a poisoned bait, and five counts of possessing protected wildlife.
On Wednesday, July 24, Magistrate David Faram found her guilty on all charges.
In the hearing, Sloan also pleaded guilty to 26 charges of wildlife possession, including four kangaroo joeys and 22 birds, mainly galahs, cockatoos and ducks, which were found in a freezer in her house.
The birds had all been shot.
The case came about after carcasses of 271 dead birds and animals — most of which were wedge-tailed eagles or other birds of prey — were found in 2019 during an investigation into the poisoning of the birds in the Violet Town and Earlston areas.
Veterinary pathologist Lydia Marwood told the court most of the birds that were found dead on the Sloan property had died between 2011 and 2019.
The charges Sloan faced did not relate to all the bird deaths, only those that died from July 2019 onwards.
All of the dead birds were either on Sloan’s property or on other properties that bordered the Sloan land.
Mr Faram said an illegal baiting program was taking place on the 750 hectare Sloan farm — which mainly ran sheep — and the evidence was that all of the birds of prey died of poisoning.
The court heard that Sloan baited the eagles and other raptors using other dead birds that had been infused with a pesticide generally used on crops, but that was poisonous to birds and animals and would result in their deaths within hours.
The magistrate accepted that the birds did not die of natural causes.
Mr Faram said that while he was “unable to conclude” that Sloan was solely responsible for the offending, he was satisfied that if she didn’t do the poisoning herself she “intentionally assisted or encouraged”, and therefore could be found guilty of the charges as she had been complicit.
In reaching this determination, Mr Faram said he took into account historical admissions that Sloan poisoned birds, that she wrongly held beliefs that eagles killed her lambs, and that she and other family members bought the type of poison which killed the birds.
He also said poison was found in bird, sheep and kangaroo carcasses that had been butchered across her property, and that Sloan had in her freezer the same type of birds that were identified as bait birds in the paddocks.
In court on Wednesday, the prosecution and defence were supposed to put forward their arguments as to what Sloan’s sentence would be.
However, this plan was scuttled, with the court told Sloan was in hospital in Melbourne after being taken there several weeks ago.
Her defence solicitor Geoffrey Clancy said he would have to seek medical reports to find out “if and when” the matter could be finalised.
Mr Clancy said he needed the reports to see if his client would be discharged from hospital, and where to, saying it was unlikely she would return home.
The case will return to court in September for a mention.