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The Van Asch penalty - the court's view of extreme animal suffering
Each had pleaded guilty to one count of failing to provide veterinary treatment to a sick or injured animal and one count of omitting to do an act which resulted in the serious disablement of an animal.
DPIPWE Agricultural Officer Colin Jessup was called to the property in late 2008, where he found a Hereford cow without an eyeball in one of its eye sockets.
Its head area was fly-struck and encrusted with maggots of varying sizes.
Police Prosecutor Brett Steele said the animal's head emitted a foul odour and pus oozed from its nostrils.
Its head was down and it was shaking from side to side.
Mr Jessup was told the cow was being kept alive to provide milk to its six-week-old calf.
That calf was found dead some distance from its mother.
Mr Steel said Mr Van Asch told Mr Jessup he did not consider "the eye problem or the maggots would have caused the cow suffering".
He said his family was aware of the problem but had been "too busy" to effectively deal with it, although he had arranged - shortly before the RSPCA visit - to hire an excavator to bury it.
If you think this is pitifully inadequate, please write to Tasmania's newspapers and say so:-
editor@examiner.com.au
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