A woman was given a suspended sentence after seven dead cats were found in her flat.
Carrie Renwick has been banned from owning animals for ten years after she left her cats to starve to death. The flat in Runcorn was full of so much rubbish that some rooms were inaccessible. Renwick was handed a 16-week custodial sentence at North Cheshire Magistrates on November 23 which the deputy district judge suspended for 12 months.
The cats were only discovered when RSPCA inspectors arrived at the property, which Renwick had already left, to perform a welfare check on the cats on July 5. RSPCA inspector Nadine Pengilly told the court: "We went to the back of the property and I could clearly see the flat was in a filthy condition with overflowing litter trays and bags of rubbish all over the floor. The place was full of clutter and there was a mass flea infestation."
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Six of the seven cats were so badly decomposed only their fur and bones remained. Inspector Nadine said: “The black cat found in the wardrobe looked like he hadn’t been dead long as he still had flesh on his body and was being eaten by maggots.”
RSPCA inspector Leanne Cooper, who was also at the flat, said: “There was a foul smell coming from the property that I could smell from standing outside the front door. I could see live and dead flies on the windows and hundreds of live and dead fleas. These actually jumped on me when I opened the letterbox.”
According to Inspector Leanne the cats had been starved. She said: "Emaciation can cause mental suffering through having a constant hunger that is never fulfilled. It is reported to take at least four days for a cat to starve to death a slow, painful and prolonged process as the body shuts down. This will have been unpleasant.”
Renwick had previously turned down offers of help to rehome the cats by the RSPCA.
The court heard she had health and alcohol issues. A requirement to complete 20 rehabilitation activity requirement (RAR) days and an alcohol abstinence monitoring programme was also imposed as part of the sentence.
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