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• Lai Toy was convicted on animal neglect charges and then breached an order banned her from owning more animals.
• She appealed to the Court of Appeal, which upheld her earlier conviction and sentence under the Animal Welfare Act.
• Toy then tried a second appeal but the Supreme Court dismissed her application for leave to appeal.

A woman’s argument that her conviction for ill-treating animals went against her perspective that animals were taonga under the Treaty has failed to convince the Supreme Court.

Lai Janice Toy was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court in November 2017 after being found guilty on charges of failing to ensure animals in her care received treatment. Many had to be euthanised.

She was sentenced to 300 hours of community work and nine months' supervision, was ordered to pay $2000 in reparation and had to forfeit ownership of the two cats that were in the care of SPCA Waikato.

Toy was also banned from owning animals for the following five years.

Then, in May 2020, several animals were found on her property and after another trial Toy was further convicted, for contravening the disqualification order.

She was sentenced to two years’ intensive supervision, ordered to pay $3000 in reparation and given a further five-year ban from owning animals.

This goat belonging to Waharoa woman Lai Toy had to be put down after it was left to suffer after it was allegedly hit by a car. Photo / SPCA

She appealed against the decision in the Court of Appeal, which upheld her conviction and sentence.

The Supreme Court has now dismissed her application for leave to appeal, saying in a judgment released yesterday there was nothing in the Court of Appeal’s reasons that suggested a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred, nor did it consider the proposed appeal raised a matter of general or public importance.

Toy submitted that the lower courts erred on the issue of whether there was criminal intent behind what occurred.

She did not dispute that she knew she was disqualified from owning animals but argued it breached her rights as tangata whenua and kaitiaki under the Treaty.

Alternatively, if the disqualification was lawful and necessary, it should have been limited to stray cats and goats only, she said.

Toy’s defence at trial focused on the fact that she had “interposed a trust structure between herself and the animals”, and that others were also involved in the care of the animals at various times when she was unavailable.

She also argued that she did not believe in the concept of legal ownership of animals, the Supreme Court said in its decision released yesterday.

She suggested these factors were relevant to whether she intended to breach the disqualification order.

Are animals taonga?

She also submitted that the Court of Appeal erred in deciding domestic animals were not taonga, which was contrary to her perspective on the Māori worldview.

As tangata whenua, Toy claimed her rights under Te Tiriti o Waitangi/ the Treaty of Waitangi, He Whakaputanga/the Declaration of Independence and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) had been breached.

She said she was a kaitiaki and that animals were taonga under the Treaty, so it was a breach of her rights to deny her the exercise of kaitiakitanga over such taonga.

Toy submitted her sentence was manifestly excessive and that the Court of Appeal erred in rejecting her cultural report as being “neither fresh nor cogent”.

Justices Joe Williams, Stephen Kós and Forrest Miller noted the report was requested before sentencing but only delivered afterwards and should have been considered as “background information” as opposed to “evidence”.

They said in dismissing her application for leave to appeal that they did not see the case as appropriate for expressing arguments based on the Treaty, He Whakaputanga and the UNDRIP.

“Nor do we see any issue of principle or any risk of miscarriage of justice in relation to sentence,” they said.

The charges on which Toy was sentenced in 2017 related to several animals, including cats and a goat, examined by SPCA inspectors and veterinarians at her Waharoa property between July 8 and August 3, 2015.

One goat was found to have a fracture near its front right elbow and was euthanised as recommended to end its severe pain.

A black and white, domestic short-haired cat, seized under a search warrant, was found by a vet to be underweight and dehydrated, suffering from kidney disease and severe, painful dental disease. It displayed obvious lameness while walking and was subsequently euthanised.

Further cats were seized, three of which were found to be suffering from oral diseases.

Two of the cats were then placed in the care of SPCA Waikato and after treatment were put up for adoption.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at ��һ�ǿ�����. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.