A Hobart man who jammed a possum’s tail in a window, shaved it, then rubbed heat cream on its bare skin has escaped a possible jail sentence.
A judge ordered Craig Simon Taylor, from North Hobart, to do 70 hours of community service for the Animal Welfare offence.
Mr Taylor’s lawyer told the court that the defendant found the possum defecating in his bathroom but Magistrate Michael Daly said his attack was “completely unnecessary and quite serious,” and that he “doesn’t see any justifiable reason to do it at all,” reports the ABC.
It was reportedly Mr Taylor’s first animal welfare offence but he was given a one-month suspended jail term for driving under the influence of drugs and was banned from driving for six months.
Possums living in suburbia can become quite trusting of humans so they can fall victim to cruelty.
Earlier this year the RSPCA made an appeal to the public to find the people behind a horrific attack on a live possum after a video surfaced of a driver repeatedly running over the trapped animal in a large vehicle.
Two 17-year-olds from Greenslopes and Tarragindi in Queensland were charged with animal cruelty.
