Hyde woman banned from keeping animals for a decade after pet rabbit starved to death

A woman from Hyde has been disqualified from keeping animals for ten years after allowing her pet rabbit to starve to death.

The young female Lionhead rabbit was discovered in a filthy hutch with no food or water at the property at Garden Street in Hyde, after the RSPCA had been alerted over concerns for the animal’s welfare.

A post mortem concluded the rabbit, called Bing, had died as a result of ‘prolonged malnutrition’.

Sara Holland, 28, was handed the disqualification order at Tameside Magistrates Court on 8 February after being found guilty in her absence of two charges contrary to the Animal Welfare Act 2006 at a previous hearing last month. 

The court heard how RSPCA Inspector Beth Fazackerley had gone to the property on 22 February 2022 and was shown into the back garden by Holland. 

In written evidence to the court the inspector said: “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. 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.”

Asked about the circumstances in which her rabbit was found, Holland said 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.

Holland eventually agreed that Inspector Fazackerley could take Bing to a vet so the cause of death could be established and it was explained to her that police would be asked to seize the rabbit’s body as evidence as part of the investigation.

Bing was examined by a vet later that day and given a body score condition of one out of five. The vet said her ribs and spine could be easily felt, but 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.

A post mortem was also carried out. It showed Bing 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.               

The court was told that Inspector Fazackerley made multiple attempts to speak and meet with Holland between 1 March and 26 April 2022 but phone calls went unanswered and dates got cancelled by the defendant. On 10 May Holland confirmed she didn’t want to be interviewed in relation to what had happened to Bing. 

In addition to the ten-year disqualification order, Holland was also given a 12-month community order with 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and fined £120. The court was told she had mental health issues and had had relationship troubles in the past.