Mother of two spared jail after letting dog die slow and painful death over six weeks by leaving it in locked toilet

Laura Shaw, 23, abandoned pet Lulu when the animal fell ill

Dog was found dead and covered in flies with 'overpowering foul stench'

Unemployed alcoholic fined and banned from keeping animals



An unemployed alcoholic mother who locked her dog in a toilet and left it to die has walked free from court.



Laura Shaw, 23, abandoned her pet Lulu for six weeks, and has now been banned from keeping animals for the next 10 years.



Horrific images shown in court revealed how the animal was found covered in swarms of flies, surrounded by the empty food bowls it tried to eat.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Heartless: Laura Shaw has been convicted of animal cruelty after leaving her pet dog to die



The mother of two was prosecuted by the RSPCA, but escaped jail after a hearing at Grimsby Magistrates' Court.



The court heard how the dog was found dead last August in a downstairs toilet at Shaw's former home in Grimsby, surrounded by faeces and urine.

Prosecutor Nigel Burn said there was an 'overpowering foul stench' and the house was swarming with large flies.



Empty plates and a bowl were found and it looked as though they had been bitten by the black cross-bred dog in a desperate attempt to satisfy its hunger.



Horror: Lulu the dog was found dead locked in a small toilet surrounded by faeces and urine

Shaw, now of no fixed address, admitted two offences of causing unnecessary suffering to a dog by failing to provide veterinary care and leaving it unattended without adequate food and water.



She claimed that she was scared to seek help after the dog became ill, but when she was asked about the animal's death she admitted: 'It must have been traumatic and it must have been lonely and scared.'



Lauren Fisher, mitigating, said the dog stopped eating and drinking and that she tried giving it milk and different dog food brands, without succes.



'Things spiralled out of control,' she said. 'She did not get the help that was necessary for the dog and neglected her duty as an owner to take the dog to the vet's.'



Tragic: The dog was apparently abandoned after she fell ill and started refusing the food she was given

Ms Fisher added that Shaw's former home had been burgled after her windows were smashed and that a large amount of her property had been stolen, causing her 'extreme unhappiness'.



She left the house 'feeling scared and unable to cope' and abandoned the dog, who was aged about 18 months to two years.



Probation officer Graham Marshall said Shaw had been a mental health support worker but lost her job and later 'drank to oblivion every day whenever she could'.



The court heard that the defendant also had more than £10,000 of debts.



Squalid: The house in Grimsby was filled with an overwhelming stink when the dog was found last year

Judge Sam Goozee told Shaw: 'You have committed a cruel and despicable offence. The pictures I have seen show the horror and pain that Lulu must have gone through in what was a very slow death.



'The conditions in which she was found are disgusting and she clearly had been dead for a while.



'Looking after an animal brings responsibility and you simply ignored those responsibilities.



'Can you imagine what it would be like if a child went through what Lulu did? As an adult, you would never place a child in that position and you should not place an animal in that position.'



Shaw was handed 200 hours of unpaid work, banned from keeping animals for ten years and ordered to pay £150 costs.



Speaking after the verdict, an RSPCA spokesman said: 'This was a shocking incident. The poor animal would have suffered terribly, and it is terrible to leave a living creature to die like this.

