How Africa News
A 39-year-old heroin addict who was caught hacking up and eating her pet hamster named “Mr Nibbles” was sentenced to a year in prison.
In a 27-second viral video, Emma Parker is seen thrusting a huge knife into a hamster ball enclosing the animal. She was also seen carrying a bottle of water before devouring the hamster’s two dissected pieces.
Gordon Holt, prosecuting at Lincoln Crown Court, said:
“The two videos seen on social media showed the defendant with a hamster in a hamster ball.
“The defendant is holding the ball with a knife in the other hand .
“She takes the knife and plunges it through the opening of the ball moving the knife from side to side.
“A spectator is heard laughing and says, ‘You are a sick bastard you are’.”
A worried member of the public uploaded footage of Parker from Great Gonerby, Lincs, to the RSPCA.
During an interview with authorities, Parker admitted making the video and claimed she was assisting the hamster’s death after it had been bitten by one of her dogs earlier in the day.
Parker stated that the event occurred at her home in mid-May, but she declined to identify individuals who filmed the clip, telling police, “They are not pleasant people.”
The footage was regarded as highly unsettling by a vet with 27 years of experience who watched it.
Mr Nibbles would have experienced both bodily and psychological harm, according to the Vet, because hamsters are prey animals that can feel fear.
The vet also stated that in her experience, she had never heard a hamster screech like Mr Nibbles.
Parker pleaded guilty to causing needless pain to a protected animal. Parker had received community orders in both 2021 and 2022 for shoplifting offenses, and he had a long history of addiction to Class A substances, according to the court.
Sentence transition Parker was warned by Judge James House KC that he had to consider the fact that Parliament had recently increased the maximum term for such animal cruelty from six months to five years in prison.
Judge House said it was “abhorrent” that violence had been inflicted on a defenceless animal for others’ entertainment. He banned Parker from keeping animals for 15 years after telling her he regarded her cruelty as “serious as could be.”
