A woman facing animal welfare charges in New Zealand, who had previously been sentenced for animal cruelty in Australia, has been allowed to travel overseas.
Lena Duncan is facing 18 charges laid by the SPCA in 2023 under the Animal Welfare Act relating to the alleged ill-treatment of horses and the alleged unlawful transport of animals.
She has pleaded not guilty and is due to face a judge-alone trial in November.
Under her bail conditions, her passport was taken from her. But in April the Whangārei District Court granted her application to vary her bail and ordered her passport be returned to her.
Judge Gene Tomlinson imposed a condition that Duncan could only leave New Zealand if she first filed copies of her return tickets with the court, showing her departure and return dates.
Duncan told 1News she then went on a trip overseas. She said she left New Zealand in May and returned the same month.
1News requested court documents from Whangārei District Court in the first week of May to confirm the bail variation but did not receive them until 16 weeks later.
Duncan was the subject of a 2022 investigation by TVNZ's Sunday programme, which reported that she had been convicted of animal cruelty offences in Australia but left the country under a different name before she could be sentenced.
Previous animal cruelty convictions
In South Australia, Duncan was known as Dora Ryan.
She was convicted in 2020 of 33 animal ill-treatment charges brought by the RSPCA, relating to horses and dogs kept on a property at Baroota, north of Adelaide.
She represented herself at trial. The magistrate found she had lied to the court and described her as having no credibility as a witness.
Duncan was found guilty on all charges but failed to appear at the final four hearings and left Australia before she could be sentenced.
She was later able to legally change her name in South Australia because her animal cruelty convictions did not meet the threshold for her to be classified as a “restricted person” — a status which would have prevented her from changing her name.
She subsequently shipped about 26 horses from Sydney to Auckland by air freight, along with an unknown number of dogs.
The horses passed veterinary checks carried out by the Ministry for Primary Industries on departure and arrival.
Duncan settled on a remote farm in the Far North.
In her 2022 interview with Sunday, she denied any wrongdoing and rejected the suggestion she had left Australia to avoid being sentenced.
She said Australian authorities had unjustly seized her animals and described her relationship with animals as “a love affair” rather than a business.
New Zealand charges
In 2021 animal welfare group Help Us Help Animals NZ (HUHA) covertly bought two horses from Duncan.
In a post on Facebook, HUHA said it was a last-ditch effort to save the horses after inaction by the SPCA, police and Interpol.
They said blood samples showed the horses were malnourished, and one horse had an undiagnosed genetic condition.
In August 2022, SPCA inspectors raised concerns about animals at two properties owned by Duncan, one near Kaitaia and another in Napier.
Search warrants were executed at both properties on August 25 that year.
Seventeen horses and one dog were uplifted from the Napier property.
Duncan subsequently filed a civil claim seeking the return of the horses, arguing the warrants were unlawful.
In November 2023, a judge found the SPCA had executed a lawful warrant.
Duncan's subsequent claims were struck out in the High Court, and an application to recall that judgment was declined in 2024. The Judge noted Duncan’s attempts to relitigate the same issues were an abuse of the court process.
The SPCA filed criminal charges against Duncan in June 2023.
At the time, SPCA national inspectorate manager Alan Wilson said the charges related to the alleged ill-treatment of one horse, alleged failures to provide proper and sufficient food to a further 15 horses, and the transport of horses.
Duncan entered not-guilty pleas in the Kaitaia District Court and the case was later transferred to Whangārei.
SHARE ME