A woman who was filmed killing and eating her hamster, called Mr Nibbles, has been jailed for 12 months.
Footage shared on social media shows Emma Parker stabbing the animal with a large knife before chopping it in half while still alive and then chewing both parts.
The RSPCA received two disturbing videos filmed at her home in Great Gonerby, near Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Lincoln Crown Court heard the first showed the 39-year-old with a hamster in a hamster ball.
Gordon Holt, prosecuting, described the sickening act: ‘Parker was holding a ball with a knife in the other hand.
‘She takes the knife and plunges it through the opening of the ball moving it from side to side.
‘A spectator is laughing and says: “What a sick b** you are.” The hamster can be heard repeatedly squealing.
‘It is allowed to escape and runs around while the defendant attempts to strike it with the knife successfully at least once. She pinches its neck to keep it still.
‘It is still alive and she uses the knife in a chopping and sawing motion over the middle of the hamster’s body.
‘In the second video, the defendant eats the two halves of the dissected body.’
Mr Holt stressed that a vet described the videos as distressing to watch and that they had never heard an animal make such a noise as Mr Nibbles did.
After being arrested, Parker told police her dog had bitten her pet and she helped it die because she could not afford a vet.
Chris Brewin, representing her, said: ‘There is nothing that I can say to mitigate the offence.’
He said that at the time of the offence, ‘someone was living at the house that she sought to break away from’.
Mr Brewin added that at the time Parker was working ‘very hard’ to deal with her substance addiction.
The court was told Parker had been a victim of violent and abusive relationships, and had suffered bereavement.
‘She’s been targeted as a result of this court case. She’s had faeces out through her letterbox and she’s concerned about what will happen to her after today,’ Mr Brewin added.
Parker admitted causing unnecessary suffering to Mr Nibbles, a protected animal, between May 1 and May 31, 2022, at at previous court hearing.
Judge James House KC noted that she refused to tell the police who she was with at the time and who filmed her sickening act.
Referencing her ‘long-term addiction to Class A drugs’, he added: ‘It is said her drug dealer moved onto her drive and effectively took over the house, and she had to steal as ordered.’
The judge described her actions towards the ‘defenceless’ hamster as ‘abhorrent to any right minded person’.
He said: ‘The animal was undoubtedly suffering extreme pain and fear.’
Parker was also banned from keeping animals for 15 years. Costs of £150 were awarded from the public purse.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.