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Whitwell woman let rabbit starve to death
In Court
A WOMAN who left her pet rabbit to starve to death has been banned from keeping animals for five years.
The abandoned 18-month-old rabbit, named Smokie, had tried to eat its own faeces in a bid to survive, a court heard.
It was found dead by RSPCA inspectors in a hutch in a garden next door to keeper Emma Webster’s former home in Welbeck Street, Whitwell.
“She said she had kept it in her flat but the landlord asked her to move it outside,” Brian Orsborn, prosecuting, told Chesterfield magistrates.
Webster said she went away for nine days in January and left the female rabbit some food and water but made no arrangements for anyone to look after it.
She texted a neighbour on one occasion, asking her to feed it. The neighbour sent someone else to feed it but it was already dead.
“It was extremely thin and it had tried to seek nutrition from its own waste. She said she thought it would be fine and she was sorry and she wouldn’t be having any more pets,” said Mr Orsborn.
Webster, 29, now of Arboretum Square, Derby, admitted failing to ensure the welfare of an animal between 30th December and 13th January. The bench imposed a one-year probation supervision order, including a six-month alcohol treatment programme, and banned her from keeping animals for five years, with £200 costs.
“She had problems with rent arrears and people were after her. She went to stay with someone for a while to stop people finding her,” said Steve Brint, for Webster. “She asked the neighbour to put some food and water out for the rabbit and she was away for longer than anticipated.”
He told the court she ‘went off the rails’ after her child was put up for adoption and she relapsed into alcohol abuse towards the end of last year.
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Weather for Gainsborough
Sunday 26 May 2013
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 7 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west
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Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 17 C
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