Woman who let dog die spared jail
A woman who allowed a rottweiler to starve to death in a brick outhouse next to her former Wolverhampton home has been banned from keeping animals for 10 years – but has escaped an immediate jail sentence.
The dog, called Ben, which was so hungry it ate a baby's nappy, took weeks to die after 28-year-old Maxine Price left Hall Park Street in Bilston.
Vets also found baby bottle teats and scraps of plastic in the animal's stomach, clear signs that the dog had been forced to scavenge, Wolverhampton Magistrates Court heard.
The black-and-tan dog weighed just three-and-a-half stones, instead of the more normal eight, and was found dead in an outhouse, wedged between children's toys and a brick wall, said Gaynor Sutton, prosecuting for the RSPCA.
There was a hole in the garden fence between the two properties through which the dog would often wander, but it was not clear whether Ben had sought refuge there or had been placed there by someone, said Mrs Sutton.
The dog suffered a slow and considerably painful death after one of five ulcers in its stomach burst, the court heard. A post-mortem revealed it had no body fat, its muscles were wasting away and its bones protruding.
Price was convicted last month in her absence of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal after she failed to show up at court and a warrant for her arrest was issued.
Yesterday she was sentenced to eight weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, disqualified from keeping any animal for 10 years and told to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. She was also ordered to pay £400 towards the prosecution costs of £4,000.
Defending her, David Dorrance said it was Price's partner Stephen Austin who had the dog and she had not wanted the responsibility. He left in November 2006 and Price followed in December. She claimed to have returned several times to feed the dog, discovered on December 15 after the neighbour contacted the RSPCA, but vets say it may have been dead before she left.
