Tue 7 Jul 2026 at 5:43pm
Andrew William Goss is charged with 31 animal cruelty offences. (ABC News)
In short:
Five co-owners of an Adelaide Plains piggery are collectively accused of ill-treating their animals, court documents allege.
Two of the co-owners of the piggery appeared in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
What’s next?
The matter will return to court in August.
Warning: This article contains distressing content about the alleged mistreatment of animals.
Five co-owners of an Adelaide Plains piggery are collectively accused of ill-treating their animals, including leaving some of the pigs in a “morass of faeces, urine and dirt”, court documents allege.
Two of the five co-accused, Andrew William Goss and Alison Louise Goss, appeared in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court for the first time on Tuesday, where an RSPCA lawyer described the matter as “probably the most serious matter [the organisation] has dealt with” during his employment.
The duo, alongside Garry Joseph Tiss and Joan Mary Tiss, are each charged with 31 offences: 16 counts of ill-treatment of an animal and 15 counts of ill-treating an animal to cause death or serious harm.
A fifth person, Lachlan Goss, is charged with 49 counts.
Alison Louise Goss appeared in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court. (ABC News)
A charge sheet filed with the court alleges the defendants “ill-treated no fewer than two hundred pigs” in sheds at a piggery on Long Plains Road, Dublin.
“The defendants being the owners of the animals failed to ensure that they had adequate and appropriate living conditions,” the document alleges.
“The pigs were forced to live in an ankle-deep morass of faeces, urine and wet straw without any sufficiently dry area to rest on.”
The Long Plains Road piggery, north of Adelaide, was raided by the RSPCA in July. (Supplied: Farm Transparency Project)
The documents further allege some of the pigs were found in “unhygienic conditions”, while some allegedly had “fever and swollen limbs”, and others were allegedly “unable to walk” and had to be euthanased.
The RSPCA previously said it raided the property on Long Plains Road last July, euthanising 14 pigs and issuing improvement notices.
The raids came after animal rights group Farm Transparency Project published vision purportedly taken inside the piggery, but it is unclear if the charges directly relate to the conditions pictured.
The matter was adjourned to August 4.
Outside court, Mr and Ms Goss offered no further comment as they were surrounded by around 20 animal rights protesters.
Animal rights activists gathered outside the Elizabeth Magistrates Court. (ABC News)
The RSPCA laid charges last month after what it described as an “an extremely complex” investigation.
Under the Animal Welfare Act, individuals face fines of up to $20,000 or two years in prison if convicted of ill-treatment of an animal.
The RSPCA previously said it would seek orders that the defendants surrender their livestock and be forbidden from “acquiring or having custody of any other livestock until further order”.
