'Irate' Walsall woman threw blind dog at police, saying she didn't want it anymore

Suzane Richards, of Miner Street, Walsall, admitted causing harm to the 13-year-old Jack Russell, along with two other charges, when she appeared at Dudley Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

The 56-year-old pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal by "throwing the dog at a police officer and onto a concrete pavement", as well as one count of racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress in an incident near her home in August last year.

The court heard how at around 11am on August 26 last year, police were called to Miner Street, where they found Richards and her daughter both asleep.

As officers were, leaving Richards became "irate due to her level of intoxication and she allowed her 13-year-old blind Jack Russell dog to leave the address with officers". When they told her the dog was leaving, she told police to take it as she did not want it.

However, officers picked the dog up and took it back inside, prompting Richards to storm back to the door and repeat her assertion that she didn't want the Jack Russell.

The court was then told she picked the dog up, with it "clearly being in distress at being grabbed at, and has then thrown the dog out of the front door at officer’s chest height".

The prosecution then said: "The dog struck the pavement outside the address with audible force and has whimpered as if hurt. The dog then began to limp off in visible distress."

She then "again told officers to take the dog with them and that she does not want the dog. Due to concern for the welfare of the animal, and the risk a blind dog wandering the streets poses to the public, officers took the dog to a vet."

Police were called back to the address at around 6.50pm the same day, when Richards' neighbour reported being threatened with a knife from her back garden, with CCTV showing her stabbing the garden fence.

The prosecution concluded that Richards went "outside her premises and has blamed all the neighbours for her dog being taken away. She was verbally abusive to her neighbours and even racially abused one of her neighbours. She also told another neighbour she would stab him".

After admitting the charges, Richards was given a 12-month community order and disqualified from owning any animals for a year. She must also undertake six months of alcohol treatment and as well as being ordered to pay £100 and £50 compensation towards the people she aimed her abuse at. She was fined £200 and told to follow a 20-day rehabilitation order.