Dog cruelty owner gets life ban

A former Beatties shop worker whose three poodles died within 18 months of each other has been banned from keeping animals for the rest of her life.

One of the dogs had been neglected so badly it had to be put down. Another was dead by the time it reached the vets while the third also had to be destroyed.

Divorcee Christine Guest, of Bank Street, Coseley, admitted causing more than three months of unnecessary suffering to a 15-year-old poodle called Jamie when she appeared before Wolverhampton Magistrates Court yesterday.

Prosecutor Nick Sutton said: "This case appears to be the tip of the iceberg. The woman is not fit to care for animals."

Jamie was almost completely bald after suffering from a long-running adrenal disease that caused hair loss but Guest, aged 56, did not take the pet for treatment. By the time the RSPCA was tipped off it was too late. Inspectors took Jamie for treatment after being alerted in June but the dog was in such poor health that it had to be put down.

Mr Sutton said: "Miss Guest said this was the first time anything like that had happened but subsequent inquiries revealed this was not the case."

In January 2007 another poodle belonging to her called Sophie had been taken to the vets suffering such severe fits that it had to be put down, the court heard. Nine months later Guest arrived at the same vets with a dead poodle in her arms, Mr Sutton told the magistrates. Neither of the earlier cases were considered for possible court action because the RSPCA had been unaware of them until after Jamie had been destroyed this summer.

Mrs Nishi Kumar, defending, said Guest had "emotional issues" and had attempted suicide while the case was waiting to come to court.

Guest had left her job at the Beatties store in Dudley and was living on £35-a-week Jobseekers allowance, said Mrs Kumar.

Mrs Kumra added: "She could not afford to take this dog to the vets – that is not an excuse but merely an explanation."

Magistrates' chairman Roger Cheshire gave Guest a 12-week jail sentence, suspended for two years, with a lifetime ban on keeping animals.

He told her: "This is an awful case of long-term animal neglect causing severe suffering."