CONVICTED (2016) | Karen Whittingham, born 16 August 1972, of Winford Avenue, Kingswinford, Dudley DY6 8LT – left two cats in a house to die of starvation.
Whittingham, a popular figure on the Black Country amateur dramatics circuit, caused unnecessary suffering to the two cats by failing to feed them and failing to ensure they were housed in a suitable environment.
The RSPCA discovered the two dead cats on March 15, 2016, at a property in Bridle Road, Wollaston, which Whittingham had been evicted from in early January. The animal charity was alerted after a member of the public saw the body of a white cat through the window of the house. The body of the second cat, a tabby, was found in the toilet by an RSPCA inspector and police officer.
Whittingham told the court she was admitted to hospital with kidney stones and a prolapsed disc, in “excruciating pain”, prior to the cats being found dead.
Rafe Turner, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, however, said she made no arrangements for the animals to be looked after while she was in Dudley’s Russells Hall Hospital on February 19 and 20 and from February 22 to 28 and she didn’t go back to check on the cats after she was discharged.
Mr Turner told the court there was no clean drinking water or food in the house and the cats most likely died of malnutrition. The cat found in the toilet was believed to have been trying to get water.
One of the police officers who attended the property, which was littered with bottles, cans, papers, general household rubbish, overflowing cat litter trays and piles of faeces, described the smell inside as “almost sick-making”.
Whittingham admitted the property was in a mess and he said she had taken two cats with her when she was evicted but left the others as she couldn’t take all of them.
An order was also made for any other animals in her care to be removed and she was told she would not have the option to appeal the ban on keeping pets for at least ten years.
RSPCA inspector Paul Seddon said after the case: “I’ve been an inspector for 34 years and I am still haunted by the image of the cat in the toilet. Both cats were clearly emaciated and it is possible the cat in the toilet was trying to get some fluid inside him when he died.
“These two poor cats would have suffered immensely before they died – there is no excuse to leave an animal to die in this way.”
Sentence: four-month jail term, suspended for 12 months; 120 hours of unpaid community work; total £575 in costs/charges. Disqualified from keeping animals indefinitely but with the option to appeal after 10 years.
