Derry woman given suspended sentence and lifetime ban from owning pets after allowing her husky dog to starve to death

A Derry woman has been given a lifetime ban from keeping animals after one of her dogs starved to death and another was found in a state of ‘extreme emaciation’.

Amy Denby, 23, with an address on her charge sheet of Cherry Drive, Eglinton in Derry, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to animals and failing to take the reasonable steps to ensure the needs of the animals were met.

The defendant owned two Huskies, a tan and white Husky was said to have starved to death while a male Husky was found in a state of extreme malnourishment.

The charges related to findings following an investigation by Animal Welfare Officers in relation to a dead husky dog found at the property by PSNI.

Another dog was found to be in poor condition and extremely emaciated, with its ribs showing and the bones of its skull and neck protruding.

On October 24, 2014, the police attended the defendant’s address after a local councillor reported concerns that there had been an intruder in her house who may have harmed her dog.

Denby alleged the intruder had been at the property and left a black rucksack in her back garden.

The dog was in the shed and she claimed it may have been the intruder who caused the dog’s death.

The PSNI found the dead dog lying in a soiled bed with no bowls for food or water in sight; the animal was dirty and wet and its ribs were visible.

Police asked to see the other dog which at first the defendant claimed was being looked after by someone else, before retrieving the dog from her bedroom.

When the dog was brought into the living room its movements were ‘slow and laboured’ and the police noticed it was emaciated.

The council was called to recover the dog from the address.

The animals were taken to the veterinary surgery, where the dog that survived (Jasper) was discovered to have weighed 14.5kg when it should have weighed closer to 25kg.

The vet who examined the dogs said they were ‘extremely emaciated’ to the point their bones were visible.

A post-mortem determined the dog’s needs had not been met due to a ‘lack of feeding’.

Cooper should have weighed 13-15kg but weighed significantly less, and the cause of death was deemed to be ‘death by starvation’ which meant he would have endured ‘severe hunger pains’.

When questioned, Denby told the police she had been feeding the dogs and they had access to a water bowl.

A representative from the Council said that legal and veterinary costs amounted to around £3,000.

A defence solicitor for Denby said it was a ‘difficult’ and ‘very distressing’ case for which the defendant is ‘extremely remorseful and ashamed’.

The defendant was said to have acquired Cooper first before getting Jasper as company, he said, and the ‘only saving grace’ was that Jasper was saved.

He explained that his client had been struggling financially and was in receipt of pay-day loans.

This was the first and only time she has been in trouble, but she is in a much better place now and has a one-year-old daughter.

Having viewed Denby’s pre-sentence report District Judge Barney McElholm addressed her financial predicament at the time.  He said the interest rates imposed by the pay-day loans company, with which the defendant had got involved, amounted to ‘robbery’.

However, he added: “I want to make one thing abundantly clear.  She would have been aware that these dogs were losing weight…It would have led any reasonably intelligent person to the conclusion that they were either ill or not getting enough nutrition.”

Judge McElholm said the dogs may have been fed but were ‘not fed sufficiently to stay healthy’.

The defendant could have contacted the animal rescue centre, explained her difficulties to the council or asked for help from charities, he said.

Denby was sentenced to three months in prison, suspended for two years and given a lifetime ban from keeping any animal.

She was also ordered to pay £2,766 of legal and veterinary costs by way of £50 monthly instalments.