07/04/2010 - Pet shop owner fined over suffering
A Greater Manchester pet shop owner sold a gerbil to a girl with learning disabilities, who put it in a cup of coffee.
Joan Higgins, 66, was the subject of a complaint to Trafford Council after the gerbil died.
The council sent a boy aged 14 to the store in Sale to make a test purchase of a goldfish. It was sold to him without any query of his age or information being provided regarding care of the fish.
A cockatiel which appeared distressed was noticed in the store by an animal welfare officer. The bird was found to have a broken leg and eye problems and had to be put down.
Higgins and her son, Mark, 47, pleaded guilty at Trafford Magistrates' Court to causing unnecessary suffering to a cockatiel and selling an animal, the goldfish, to a person under the age of 16 unaccompanied by an adult.
Mrs Higgins was fined £1,000 and ordered to abide by a curfew to stay in her house between 6pm and 7am for the next seven weeks because she was unfit for community work.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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