The long-running court case of an elderly northern Victoria woman found guilty of poisoning birds of prey has been struck out after she died before facing sentence.
WARNING: This story contains details and images some readers may find distressing.
Violet Town woman Dorothy Sloan, 84, was charged with a number of offences after authorities raided her property in 2019 and found birds of prey carcasses and the remains of other native animals.
Court proceedings started in 2021 and she initially faced over 340 charges for allegedly killing and possessing protected wildlife and serious acts of animal cruelty.
But as the case progressed a large number of those charges were dropped.
In July she was found guilty of more than 70 offences around poisoning wildlife, animal cruelty, and wildlife possession charges.
They included being found guilty of baiting more than 30 birds of prey at her property by using other dead birds and animals doused with an insecticide.
Wedge-tailed eagle carcasses found by authorities during their investigation. (Supplied)
In December, Sloan pleaded not guilty to poisoning medium sized raptors, wedge-tailed eagles, and one whistling kite.
She pleaded guilty to 26 other charges including unlawful wildlife possession including kangaroo joeys and charges related to birds found dead from gunshot in her freezer.
On Friday the three-year-old case was due to be finished in the Shepparton Magistrates Court where sentencing was expected to take place.
But the court heard Sloan had died, with Magistrate David Faram passing on the court’s condolences to her family.
Magistrate Faram dismissed all matters in the case.
Wrongly held belief eagles killed her livestock
In delivering his verdict in July, Magistrate Faram noted that he was unable to conclude that Sloan was solely responsible for the offending.
“I am however satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that she was involved in the commission of these offences in that she was intentionally assisted and/or encouraged the commission of these offences,” noted Magistrate Faram.
An environmental officer holds a dead wedge-tailed eagle in Violet Town. (Supplied)
The magistrate found that Ms Sloan had admitted she poisoned birds, had a wrongly held belief that eagles killed lambs at her property, and that she and others purchased the type of poison which killed the birds.
He also noted that poison had been found in bird, sheep, and kangaroo carcasses at the property, and that she had lied to officers about having any knowledge of dead wildlife on the property.
‘Eagles only taking dead animals’
Greg Chant was the Victorian Conservation Regulator’s case manager for the court case.
He told the ABC it was important to challenge old perceptions that eagles posed a danger to live lambs.
“In the past where people have poisoned eagles they are using dead baits. What does that tell you? That eagles are effectively only taking dead animals,” he said.
“Eagles typically don’t prey on live lambs. Farmers may see eagles eating lambs in paddocks but they are lambs that have already died.
Greg Chant says the regulator does not want farmers taking the destruction of wildlife into their own hands. (ABC Shepparton: Callum Marshall)
Mr Chant said if farmers thought eagles were targeting their livestock it was important to contact the Conservation Regulator.
“We can give advice, assistance, and look at alternative methods,” he said.
“We certainly don’t want farmers or landholders taking into their own hands the destruction of wildlife whether it’s eagles, kangaroos, or anything else that is native to Victoria.”
‘Prosecutions deter people’
Graeme Coles is the owner of the Full Flight Birds of Prey centre at Miners Rest near Ballarat.
The centre is dedicated to the protection and conservation of native raptors and is housing about 60 birds of prey.
Mr Coles said it was disappointing the Sloan case had concluded without a sentence, given the work the regulator and groups such as his did to conserve native birds.
“It is unfortunate that [she] has passed away but prosecutions deter people from doing [this] for sure,” he said.
Graeme Coles says it is crucial community members do not interfere with wildlife. (Supplied: Graeme Coles)
Mr Coles said it was crucial community members did not interfere with wildlife.
“In a lot of cases we get called out to situations where perhaps a hawk has got into a chicken coop or whatever, and that person has rung us up and we just go and catch and release the bird back into the wild [elsewhere] and everything is fine.
“When people take it into their own hands that’s when problems start.”
The ABC has contacted Sloan’s defence for comment.
