CONVICTED (2016) | Sammy Jo Wright, born 1988, formerly of Portland Road, Nottingham, and more recently Valley Road, Carlton, Nottingham NG4 1NA – abandoned two dogs, a cat and a snake for up to two weeks

On being notified by a neighbour of Sammy Jo Wright’s that she had left her four pets unattended for several days, Nottingham-based animal charity RACR mounted an urgent rescue mission to save them.

The team sought police assistance to gain legal access and discovered the two desperately underweight and anxious dogs – a white husky and black German Shepherd cross – locked inside a filthy back room.
The distressed dogs were starving and dehydrated, their fur urine-stained and caked in faeces. A half-full bag of dog food was found on the other side of the door.

There was no sign of the cat and it appeared that she had escaped through an open top window. A ball python snake was discovered inside an unheated terrarium, freezing cold and barely alive. Despite the team’s best efforts at reviving him, the snake could not be saved.

On examination by a vet both dogs were found to be extremely emaciated with a body condition score of below 1 – they were extremely lucky to be alive.

Thanks to the dedication of RACR and their team of fosterers the dogs, who were renamed Katona and Dobby, were given all of the care and attention they needed to recover from their terrible ordeal, regain their trust of humans and thrive. Both went on to be permanently adopted.

The dogs’ irresponsible owner, Sammy Jo Wright, eventually handed herself in to the police, blaming her abandonment of the pets on stress and debt.

The rescue worked alongside the police and RSPCA to build a case against Wright and on 14 November 2016 she received a suspended prison sentence and an indefinite ban on keeping animals. She was not asked to repay any of RACR’s costs even though as a tiny struggling rescue they could ill afford them.

Sentence: 12 weeks in jail, suspended for 24 months. Indefinite ban on keeping animals but may appeal after 10 years.

Source: RACR Animal Sanctuary FB post