CONVICTED (2024) | Sara Holland, 27 (born 29 August 1996), of 33 Garden Street, Hyde, Tameside, Greater Manchester SK14 4AU – left a rabbit to starve to death in a filthy hutch.
In February 2022 the RSPCA were called to Sara Holland’s home in Garden Street, Hyde, due to concerns over the welfare of a pet rabbit. There they found the young female Lionhead rabbit called Bing dead in her hutch.
The ‘filthy’ hutch had no food or water in it.
A post-mortem found the animal had died of ‘prolonged malnutrition.’
In a written statement RSPCA Inspector Beth Fazackerley said she visited the property on February 22, 2022, and was shown into the back garden by Holland.
“Against the rear wall of the property within the garden stood a large, pale blue two-storey hutch. The hutch was approximately a metre from the rear door into the kitchen” Ms Fazackerley said.
“The top floor of the hutch was bare except for some faeces and an overturned log tunnel/bridge-type structure. Attached to the mesh door pointing into the hutch was a roller-ball water bottle. It was completely empty.
“On the bottom floor of the hutch was an empty and dry green bowl, an empty and dry human food tray, multiple faecal droppings – collectively covering around a third of the bare wooden floor – and a rabbit laying on its right side on top of some faeces on the right-hand side of the hutch.”
Holland told Ms Fazackerley that she had ‘gone outside the previous evening and found Bing dead.
She said she assumed the rabbit had suffered a heart attack as she’d been scared by one of her dogs a few days previously.
She allowed the inspector to take Bing to a vet so she could be examined.
The vet gave the animal a body score condition of one out of five.
They said there were no obvious signs of bruising, swelling or abnormalities of the mouth which would explain any potential reason for the rabbit having difficulty in eating.
“Suffering has occurred as a result of the poor body condition, which will have caused debilitation, hunger and extreme weakness. I believe this suffering will have occurred over several days,” said the vet.
The post-mortem showed the rabbit had had ‘severe’ and ‘chronic’ muscle loss, soiling of the fur around her feet and thickening of the skin on the hocks, which both pointed to unhygienic living conditions.
No digestible material was found in her stomach and there were no pathological causes which could explain her weight loss, with ‘prolonged malnutrition’ the most likely cause of her death, said the report.
Holland was found guilty in her absence of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and failing to take steps to ensure the needs of an animal were met to the extent required by good practice.
The court was told she had mental health issues and had had relationship troubles in the past.
Sentencing | 12-month community order with 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days; fined £120. Disqualified from keeping any animal for a period of 10 years.