A YOUNG mum narrowly escaped jail after admitting starving her pet dog to death.
The emaciated body of two-year-old cross-breed male Usher was found dumped in a wheelie bin, a court heard.
Just six months before, mum-of-two Natalie Bromley had been warned by RSPCA officials that the dog was too thin.
But Bromley ignored the
ir advice and failed to feed the pet, leaving it to die in agony with bleeding gastric and intestinal ulcers.
When questioned about Usher's condition she replied: "I don't know, I'm not a vet."
RSPCA Inspector Sandra Dransfield said after the hearing: "This was a horrendous case. It is the simplest thing that anybody should be capable of doing – feeding an animal."
Prosecutor Brian Orsborn told magistrates in Barnsley that Usher starved to death.
In April last year the dog was found tied to a washing pole at Bromley's home in the town looking very thin.
The unemployed single mum was warned about the dog's condition - but when RSPCA officials returned in November they found the dog's emaciated body stuffed in the bin.
A vet concluded the dog had simply not been fed properly, and had died as a result of starvation. In its malnourished state it had been suffering for three to four weeks.
Bromley said she had been out and returned to find Usher dead in the kitchen. She said his weight went up and down but could not say anything about the animal's frail state.
"No opinion, no comment," she told inspectors.
Bromley admitted two offences of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal by failing to feed the dog properly and provide adequate veterinary care.
She hung her head throughout the hearing.
Her solicitor Philip Stables said she was suffering from depression and struggling to make ends meet. Bromley was left with the pet when she split from her partner and "she was not really a dog person".
Mr Stables said: "She never set out to cause the animal injury, it is by way of neglect."
Bromley was given a two-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to undertake 200 hours of unpaid community work with six months supervision.
She was banned from keeping any animal for 10 years and ordered to pay £530 costs.
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