Image
© Renee PilcherJim O’Pray in his empty bird aviary after dogs were locked in the cage.
A reward of $250 has been offered to any person who can shed some light on a "bizarre" act of animal cruelty.

Pie Creek resident Jim O'Pray made the grim discovery on Tuesday afternoon when he returned home from work to find two dogs in his bird aviary.

Working dogs from a nearby property had been locked in an aviary that caged 36 budgies for breeding. Five budgies are all that's left.

Gympie Regional Council was investigating the "unusual" incident which was expected to be handed over to police if deemed malicious.

Council's compliance officer Ron Potter said the matter was being treated as suspicious because no forced entries were found around the aviary.

"Two medium-sized dogs from a nearby property were locked in the aviary. How they got there is a mystery," he said.

Mr O'Pray said the owner of the dogs - a red cattle dog and a border collie - left them locked in a pen with three other working dogs that morning only to return later that night to find only three remained.

"It's not the fault of the dog owners or the dogs," he said.

"Somebody obviously needs a bit of help ..."

Gympie police conducted preliminary investigations into the incident, which left officers baffled.

"The cops have never heard of anything like this happening before," Mr O'Pray added.

"What I think happened is someone went to the house up the road, got the dogs and locked them in the aviary.

"Why? I don't know.

"I'm offering a $250 reward to any person that provides police with information that leads to an arrest. Whoever did this has a sick mind."