Dorothy Sloan, 83, is facing a contested hearing in the Shepparton Magistrates’ Court, where she is accused of baiting wedge-tailed eagles and other birds of prey using other dead birds and animals that had been doused with a pesticide generally used on crops.
Mrs Sloan has pleaded not guilty to 20 charges of poisoning medium-sized raptors with bait, poisoning 11 wedge-tailed eagles with bait, seven counts of animal cruelty that resulted in the death of six wedge-tailed eagles and a whistling kite, poisoning a whistling kite, and five counts of possessing wildlife.
She has pleaded guilty to 26 charges of wildlife possession, including four kangaroo joeys and 22 birds, mainly galahs and ducks.
The case comes about after carcasses of 271 dead birds and animals — the majority of which were wedge-tailed eagles or other birds of prey — were found in 2019 during a Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) investigation into the poisoning of the birds in the Violet Town and Earlston areas.
The charges before the court do not relate to all the bird deaths, only those that died from July 2019 onwards.
On day seven of the hearing on Wednesday, December 13, former Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning senior enforcement officer Andrew Dean gave evidence.
The court heard audio recordings of a conversation between Mr Dean and Mrs Sloan when DELWP officers searched her home on August 27, 2019.
They are heard talking about four dead kangaroo joeys and other birds, including galahs, officers found in freezers at the house.
Mrs Sloan is heard telling Mr Dean the joeys’ mothers had been hit by cars and she had taken the dead joeys to “feed to the dogs” and the dead birds to feed to her cats.
“There are a lot of dead birds on the side of the road, and I bring them home and if I don’t feed them (to the cats) now, I freeze them and feed them later on,” she said.
In the recording, Mrs Sloan also denies the poisoning of birds, with 36 dead eagles and birds of prey having been found that morning alone, in paddocks registered to Mrs Sloan’s sons Brian and Kevin and farmed as a family.
She also denied owning the chemicals used to bait the birds, despite a container of it being found in a shed on the property.
“The weight of deceased wildlife is super prolific,” Mr Dean said in the recording.
“Somebody is killing wildlife on this farm.”
Mrs Sloan answered “well, it is not us”.
Mr Dean spoke of finding lambs, kangaroos and a galah doused in chemicals, and then 200m to 250m away finding dead eagles.
“They consume the dead animal and then fly to a tree and they die,” he said.
“I can’t fathom this level of offending can occur on this property and you don’t know anything about it.”
Mr Dean also told the court on Wednesday of his involvement in searches of other properties in the area, as well as the Sloan’s.
Former DELWP forest and wildlife officer Luke Voorzaat also gave evidence on Wednesday of his involvement in collecting dead bird carcasses from properties over several days.
On the first day of searching on August 21, 2019, Mr Voorzaat and Mr Dean found several birds of prey carcasses and a kangaroo carcase that “had orange paint on it leg”.
Another search on August 27, 2019, involving more officers, turned up more birds.
A search the following day on the Sloan property found 44 dead wedge-tailed eagles, seven whistling kites, and a small number of other birds.
On August 30, 13 wedge-tailed eagles, seven whistling kites, six falcons and three galah carcasses were found, along with three other birds.
Mr Voorzaat said he was also involved in searches of other properties, saying officers “sped through” properties where not much evidence was gathered as that took the most time.
He also told of finding several carcasses in a wooded area on a property that did not belong to the Sloans.
The case continues in court.
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