A woman who admitted to neglecting her cat has been banned from keeping cats for five years.
Danisha Irving (date of birth: 24/5/2003) of Cornwall Road, in Birmingham, pleaded guilty to an animal welfare offence, following an investigation and prosecution by the RSPCA. RSPCA inspector Kate Levesley said the animal welfare charity received a call about a very thin cat and visited her address to investigate.
She added: “Irving brought a cat named Prince to the front door. I could see that he was ginger and white and looked very, very thin. He was lively and appeared frantic in his movements.
“I noticed that he was missing some of his fur and asked her about this. She said that she had shaved him because he was shedding a lot. I asked if she had taken the cat to the vet about his weight loss.
“She said she had not.” The vet who examined him concluded he had a body conditioning score of 2/9, which is too thin according to the Purina Body Condition System used by vets for cats. Prince weighed just 2.7kg (6lb).
In her report the vet said: “Prince arrived with anaemia and very poor body condition which in my professional opinion was due to ongoing lack of adequate nutrition. His appetite was ravenous and he exhibited aggressive behaviour around food, which I believe to have been caused by frustration due to hunger.
“Once treated for parasites and on an appropriate diet and feeding regime, his weight quickly improved, with a 500g (1.1lb) increase after only four days of appropriate feeding, to nearly ideal condition within approximately five weeks. His anaemia resolved within a similar time frame.
“Prince did not have his needs met by their owner due to failure to protect from suffering and disease, failure to provide an appropriate diet. As a result of this failure he will have suffered unnecessarily for a minimum of four to six weeks but in reality likely longer.”
Alongside the five year ban from owning cats, Irving was ordered to carry out a 12 month community order with 25 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR) days when she appeared before Birmingham Magistrates Court on October 5. She must also pay a £40 fine and £140 costs.
The animal charity also secured a deprivation order for Prince and a second cat owned by Irving. That between 16 February 2023 and 16 March 2023 at Cornwall Road, Birmingham, you did cause unnecessary suffering to a certain animal, namely a ginger and white male cat known as Prince, by failing to provide adequate nutrition for the animal’s needs and you knew or ought reasonably to have known that your failure to act would have the effect of causing the animal to suffer or be likely to do so, contrary to Section 4(1) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
