Woman fined for abandoning cat with no food or drink over Christmas
A woman who left a cat locked in her home for a week with not enough food or drink while she went to spend Christmas with her family has been banned from keeping animals for three years.
Sarah Louise Gilbert bought Peaches the cat off Facebook and then locked the pet in her house over Christmas.
The cat was found, skinny and hungry, by a plumber carrying out work on the house on Boxing Day last year.
Gilbert, who was also fined £75 and ordered to pay £425 costs and a £20 victim surcharge, admitted a charge of failing to ensure animal welfare during an appearance at Welshpool Magistrates Court yesterday.
The court heard how Gilbert, 45, of Oldford Rise, Welshpool, who suffers from mental health problems, had left the cat at her home in the town on December 21 and did not return to December 28.
Mr Huw Williams, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said the cat had now been rehomed and was recovering.
He said: "Last year the defendant separated from her partner and after the split she went and lived in the house in Welshpool.
"On December 26 a plumber who was carrying out work in the house came across the cat and noticing it was particularly skinny and hungry, he fed it and also alerted the RSPCA."
Mr Williams said on December 28 Gilbert returned and volunteered to be questioned by officers.
Representing herself, Gilbert told the court: "I admit I shouldn't have left it on its own."
