James White has been ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid of work in the community (Picture: PA)

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A drunk university student who fried a hamster has been ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work in the community.

James White, 21, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the female Syrian hamster after a court accepted it could not be established whether the animal was alive when it went into the pan.

A judge told he York University student he was sentencing him on the basis the rodent died minutes before, when the defendant was handling it.


White had drunk so much in his flat in York he was ‘on the point of madness’ and could not remember what happened, Selby magistrates’ court was told.



District Judge Roy Anderson said it was clear the hamster did not die of natural causes and there was a degree of mystery about the incident.

White, a politics and international relations student, was due to go on trial today.

Two forensic veterinary pathologists attended court to give their expert opinion on how the hamster, which has not been named, met its death.

But the district judge indicated in preliminary discussions that White would be guilty of the offence even if the animal was dead before it was cooked.

After this, the defendant changed his plea to guilty on the basis that his rough handling of the animal killed it before he put it in the pan.

The district judge stressed he was sentencing White on this basis.

District Judge Anderson told him: ‘By virtue of your treatment of this small, unfortunate rodent you have destroyed your good character and acquired a criminal conviction.

‘It’s accepted now that there was rough handling of that animal but that it couldn’t be established that it was putting it in the frying pan and applying heat that caused its death.

‘Had that sadistic conduct been established I would be dealing with you in a far more serious way than I am.’

As well as the 120 hours of unpaid work, White was also banned from keeping animals for eight years and ordered to pay £1,000 towards the costs of the case. The district judge was told the investigation and legal costs came to £3,356.

Earlier, Phil Brown, prosecuting, said police were called on February 2 to White’s block of flats where they found him extremely drunk.

James White, 21, admitted causing unnecessary suffering (Picture: PA)

When officers went into the flat there was a ‘strong and pungent smell’ and a frying pan next to the hob with a hamster in it.

According to the prosecutor, White told the officer: ‘What, I f****** fried it? I fried it.’

When he was arrested and taken to a police station he exhibited ‘some of the most bizarre behaviour’ the officers had ever seen, including giving his name as ‘1, 2, 3, 4’.

The court heard that the hamster, which belonged the White’s flatmate, died from heart failure.

Kevin Blount, defending, told the court there was ‘no deliberate intent’. He added: ‘It was drunken foolishness that had tragic consequences for the hamster.’



RSPCA Inspector Claire Mitchell said she had never come across a case like this before.

‘I don’t know why anyone would think of doing that when drunk,’ she said.

The court heard that White has one more year of studies left at university and had no previous convictions.

The district judge said he had heard the defendant was a ‘decent, hard-working young man doing your best to get a good degree and make a career for yourself’ who, for some reason, went on a binge.