Dog breeder avoids jail on appeal of three-month sentence in animal neglect case

Sunday World

11-07-2025

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Vasyl Fedoryn (41), a Ukrainian man with Irish citizenship, living at Ballypierce, Charleville, had pleaded guilty earlier this year at Mallow District Court to a total of nine breaches of the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 on April 21, 2023, in relation to 13 dogs he was breeding at his home.
Vasyl Fedoryn (41), a Ukrainian man with Irish citizenship, living at Ballypierce, Charleville, had pleaded guilty earlier this year at Mallow District Court to a total of nine breaches of the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 on April 21, 2023, in relation to 13 dogs he was breeding at his home.
Judge Colm Roberts sentenced Fedoryn to five months in jail with two months suspended, fined him €500, ordered him to pay costs of €16,450 to the ISPCA to cover the veterinary and dental costs as well as vaccination and grooming costs while he also ordered him to pay the Dept's legal costs of €3,000.
But Fedoryn, represented by Charleville solicitor, Denis Linehan lodged an appeal against the custodial part of the sentence and the case came up for hearing last week before Judge Helen Boyle at Mallow Circuit Appeal, sitting at the Anglesea Street Courthouse in Cork.
ISPCA Animal Welfare Inspector, Caroline Faherty told the court how the dogs she found in two sheds on Fedoryn's property were the worst she had ever encountered with the animals being kept in the dark with no light and no bedding and being forced to lie in their own faeces.
Ms Faherty said she found a German Shepherd bitch and four pups in one shed where they had no water and when she filled a bowl with water, the bitch, who was lactating, was so dehydrated she started gulping the water down at such a rate she had to remove the bowl in case she became ill.
The matted state of one of the dogs rescued from the property. Animal Welfare Inspect Caroline Faherty said it was the 'worst' case of animal neglect she had ever encountered in her career. She was commended by the judge for having saved the dogs from what would likely have been a slow and painful death.
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She found three German Shepherd pups and five Collie pups in another shed with no light, no bedding and their coats matted from lying in their own excrement, while the lack of stimulation had resulted in the Collies being so nervous that they tried to bite her and were feral.
'It was absolutely horrific the state that I found the dogs in – I still have nightmares of going into the shed,' said Ms Faherty, adding the three German Shepherd pups could not walk properly and were instead walking on their back knees as they were malnourished and had no leg-muscle mass.
Ms Faherty became upset as she described the state of the animals and conditions that she found them in and said such was the stench of urine and faeces, she found herself retching and had to leave the shed several times to get air.
She wrote up a seizure notice on the spot and she and her colleagues in the ISPCA removed the dogs from both sheds but three of the Collie pups were so feral they could not be rehabilitated and had to be euthanized while one of the German Shepherds also had to be euthanized.
Collies and German shepherds were intelligent working dogs and needed to be exercised and socialised, but Fedoryn's dogs were left locked up in small sheds without regular food or water and became emaciated and their coats became matted with faeces and infested with maggots.
What made the situation even more distressing was the fact there was plenty of bedding and food for the dogs on the property, but Fedoryn had given neither to the animals. 'I asked him why he hadn't, and he said he was going to do this, that and the other for the dogs but he didn't.'
Ms Faherty said that Fedoryn saw nothing wrong with the way he was treating the dogs and was 'completely unrepentant' about his care of them and he later breached an undertaking not to keep any animals at his holding when she found that he had begun keeping cats there.
Defence barrister, Paula McCarthy BL said her client had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, had no previous convictions and had been of good behaviour since while she pointed out he was not appealing the €500 fine, dog rehabilitation costs of €16,450 and legal costs of €3,000.
Ms McCarthy acknowledged her client had not appreciated the seriousness of the matter when it was first brought to his attention, but he now accepted the gravity of his offending and was remorseful while she pointed out a probation report found he was at a low risk of re-offending.
She said that he was working full time as a truck driver and if he were to get a custodial sentence, he would lose his job and that would have repercussions for his young son for although he and his wife were separated, he was supporting his son financially.
Ms McCarthy also submitted that the courts had acknowledged that custodial sentences can be more difficult for foreign nationals than for Irish people as they don't have the same family support in terms of visits as she pleaded with Judge Boyle not to jail him.
Judge Boyle said she needed time to consider the matter and remanded Fedoryn in custody over lunch to consider the matter and when she returned, she said she hoped that he appreciated what being in custody was like.
'You have spent some time in a prison cell. I felt I had to show you the inside of a prison cell because of what you did,' said Judge Boyle before allowing the appeal and suspending the full five-month sentence on condition he completes 240 hours community service.
Judge Boyle singled out Ms Faherty for praise, saying that if it was not for her work and her decision to remove the dogs, she had no doubt but that all 13 dogs and puppies belonging to Fedoryn at his property would have died.
'Ms Faherty is to be commended for saving the lives of these dogs – some had to be euthanised later, but a veterinary inspector was of the opinion that they would all have died and died a slow painful death from neglect if Ms Faherty had not removed them.
'Dogs obviously need to be fed and watered, but they also need to be exercised and stimulated, and they need love and care and attention, and they got none of these under your care,' Judge Boyle told Fedoryn as she allowed his appeal.