Pets left to die as owner moved to another property

CAT AND HAMSTER COULD NOT REACH FOOD

- By KRISTY DAWSON

Pictures of the house in Seghill, Northumberland

A WOMAN left her pets to starve to death after moving to another house less than two miles away.

The decomposing remains of two cats - shut in different bedrooms - and a hamster were found by the RSPCA at Christine Overton’s property in Seghill, Northumberland.

The cats had been unable to reach two large boxes of cat food. A vet estimated that they could have laid dead for at least three months.

Overton, 54, was handed a suspended prison term and banned from keeping animals for life during a sentencing hearing North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court earlier this month.

The North Shields court heard how RSPCA Inspector Rowena Proctor had visited Overton’s new address in Allerdean Close, Seaton Delaval on April 26 last year.

She spoke to Overton about reports she had left animals behind at her previous address after members of the public said they had seen a cat through a bedroom window.

Overton told the inspector she had rehomed two cats and a hamster “months ago”. She said she lived permanently at her new address and had done so for some time.

Inspector Proctor was not satisfied with what she had heard and went to Overton’s previous address, on The Close in Seghill.