Starved dogs woman found keeping kittens

By awilshaw

A WOMAN who let two pet dogs starve to death in her backyard has been visited again by the RSPCA this week — because she was keeping kittens.

Marianne Stribling, 27, was asked to hand over the cats by an inspector on Friday afternoon at an address in the Gorwell estate in Barnstaple.

Ms Stribling was banned from keeping animals earlier this year after she was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to two dogs.

An RSPCA spokesman said the charity was acting on a tip-off when it visited Ms Stribling on Friday. She was found with two eight-week-old kittens at a property where she appeared to be living.

The spokesman said Ms Stribling denied owning the cats and said they belonged to her companion.

"The inspector gave her a verbal warning about the terms of her ban. The kittens were signed over to the RSPCA for re-homing," the spokesman added.

There was no suggestion the kittens had been neglected; the issue was that Ms Stribling was not lawfully allowed to keep animals. The RSPCA inspector was verbally abused by someone in the street and the police were called as a precaution, a spokesman said.

It is thought the person shouting at the inspector was a neighbour objecting to the RSPCA visit. There were no arrests.

The RSPCA were called to Ms Stribling's home on October 23, 2008, when inspector Jim Farr found the emaciated corpse of one dog in a garden shed with the fur, teeth and bones of another dog.

Investigations showed one dog had starved and then been eaten by its companion, who then also starved.

Ms Stribling admitted not feeding the dogs for three weeks and pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to the animals. In February she was imprisoned for 12 weeks by Barnstaple magistrates.

A Facebook group was set up which called for her to be "starved to death in exactly the same way that her pets were" attracted more than 4,000 supporters.

In mitigation, her solicitor told the court that Ms Stribling had severe financial problems and her young children had been too terrified to go to school because of the abuse being hurled at their mother.

Ms Stribling also showed significant remorse for her behaviour, saying her actions had been "absolutely disgraceful".

Dog so hungry it devoured its kennel mate - read the original article and comments made.