They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The apple I refer to today has lived with abuse all of his life. Animal abuse.

Many I have spoken to consider him rotten to the core. Judging from his pattern of criminal behaviour, the nature of his offences, and the alleged sadistic intent that witnesses claim it is hard to see any hope of this rotten apple ever coming good.

However it is not just this animal abuser that I want to bring to your attention today, it is his link to two organisations that are also widely regarded as rotten at their core.

Kaleb Kennedy was spent his entire life surrounded by animal abuse. Kaleb’s grandmother was a notorious puppy factory owner, when council closed her down the vet euthanised 17 dogs that were in such horrendous condition they could not be saved, and Kaleb’s mother is Jodi Knox.

Knox as many will recall is the owner of Murray River Puppies, a puppy factory notorious for alleged cruel breeding practices and for falsely claiming the endorsement of the RSPCA until legal action forced them to remove that claim and cease using the RSPCA name without permission.

Knox, until recently, was also the President of AAPDB (Australian Association of Pet Dog Breeders), a lobby group for puppy factories. Knox became president after former President Kate Schoeffel was forced to stand down in disgrace after details of treatment of animals on her puppy factory became public knowledge. Recently Schoeffel has taken back over the reins as Knox is back in the spotlight.

As Knox supports her son Kaleb, she can take comfort knowing she has the support of PIAA (Pet Industry Association of Australia) who publicly back her, and the disgraced Schoefel’s lobby organisation AAPDB on their website and in publications, most consider them partner organisations when it comes to puppy factories and pet stores.

PIAA has its hands full at the moment lobbying Victorian MP’s to block Labor’s upcoming legislation to shut down the puppy factory industry and its retail supply chain. It is also trying to delay the legislation by calling for yet another costly inquiry designed to drag things out.

Doing the lobby work for the puppy factory operators is Matt Hams, an industry colleague of Knox, puppy factory owner, and board member of PIAA. Hams too has his share of skeletons overcrowding his closet.

Matt Hams and Jodi Knox

There is a side to this industry that Ham’s no doubt leaves out when he does his PR rounds and that is the impact of significant exposure to cruelty.

The type of behaviour the practices endorsed by Hams and Knox produce are perhaps seen in the behaviour of Knox’s own son Kaleb considering the exposure he has clearly had.

Today I attended Shepparton Court to see Kaleb Kennedy appear to appeal his sentence over charges that include firearms, multiple burglaries, stolen property and animal cruelty. Kaleb is currently on bail for these charges in Victoria. Alas Kaleb was unable to attend court however as a result of being sent to prison last week in NSW on related charges.

I’ll leave aside the other offences and focus on the animal cruelty charges.

Kaleb was convicted, along with his mate Marcus Formica, of encouraging his dogs to maul to death a deer, a pig, a goat, and a cat. A ferocious, painful, and awful way to die, but one I’m sure Kaleb enjoyed watching. I know this as someone made the effort to film the savage killings with the footage ending up on Kaleb’s phone so he could watch them over and over again, reliving every gory moment and every pained cry of the animals for his own perverse pleasure.

While most smart criminals attempt to destroy evidence, other not so bright ones carry it around with them. When Kaleb was caught for the other offences the evidence of this animal cruelty was all there on his mobile phone for police to find the prosecution has alleged.

Kaleb’s mate Marcus is currently in prison serving a six-month sentence for the same offences. Perhaps his family couldn’t afford the legal support Kaleb’s family provided. Then again Marcus’s family probably wasn’t backed by the pet industry lobby.

Some I have spoken to regarding Kaleb who have asked to remain anonymous, have alleged Kaleb’s involvement in setting a cat on fire, and even the torture and killing of a koala.

The koala allegation reminded me of a shocking crime in November 2015 by two juvenile offenders who presumably due to their ages were not able to be named.

These two males allowed a dog to maul a koala, then hacked the koala with a machete while the dog was mauling it. Not content with that once the poor animal was free from the dogs jaws they threw it on their campfire so that they could watch it slowly burn to death. A koala, our national emblem.

This crime occurred in Cobram Victoria, a small town with a population of just 6,018 according to the last successful census. Cobram is also home to Kaleb Kennedy and the Knox’s. The torture and death of the unfortunate koala took place on the shore of the Murray River, the very river that Jodi Knox named her puppy factory, Murray River Puppies after.

Kaleb Kennedy and our national emblem
Image – Facebook

While Kaleb has been having his little adventures, his mum Jodi, Matt Hams and other puppy factory lobbyists for PIAA, AAPDB, and Pets Australia have been lobbying our politicians.

Currently they are lobbying in Victoria as I mentioned, however throughout 2015 they were lobbying heavily in NSW due to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Breeding Practices that was big on spin and short on results.

Mike Baird listened to the evidence and banned greyhound racing recently. Unfortunately it would appear that for his parliamentary inquiry he listened to the National Party, who chaired and ran the inquiry. This is unfortunate because the National party listened to these lobbyists. It is alarming that the NSW government would overlook the advice of organisations such as the RSPCA, Voiceless and Oscars Law and instead listen these lobbyists.

What is truly disturbing is that while Kaleb Kennedy is allegedly torturing animals for his own sick pleasure, his mum and her colleagues are making submissions and lobbying our governments on matters related to animal cruelty.

In NSW, Mike Baird needs to look again at his inquiry results. His crack crew appears to have been more like a crew on crack, listening to all the wrong advice.His problems will only worsen now with the puppy factories leaving Victoria and heading for the soft state.

Meanwhile in Victoria, the Coalition and cross-benchers need to pick a side regarding the upcoming legislation, Jodi Knox and her colleagues, or the RSPCA and theirs.

Surely that’s not a tough choice?