A woman who cut up and ate her pet hamster has been jailed for a year. Emma Parker, a 39-year-old drug addict, forced a large knife into a hamster ball containing the pet called "Mr Nibbles".
Footage posted online shows Parker, from Lincolnshire, cut him in half while he is still alive. She then ate both dissected halves of the hamster.
As reported by The Mirror, 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.
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“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 concerned member of the public sent the clips to the RSPCA. Parker claimed in a police interview that she was helping the hamster die after it had been bitten by one of her dogs.
The incident reportedly took place in mid-May last year, but Parker refused to name those that filmed it. She told police: “They are not nice people.”
An experienced vet said Mr Nibbles would have suffered both physical and psychological damage as hamsters can feel fear. She added that she had never heard a hamster squeal like Mr Nibbles did during the whole of her 27-year career.
Parker admitted one charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. The court heard Parker had been made the subject of community orders in both 2021 and 2022 for offences of shoplifting, and had a long history of addiction to Class A drugs.
Chris Brewin, mitigating, said Parker had been targeted as a result of the video. Her home was vandalised and dog faeces put through the letter box.
The court was told Parker had been “cuckooed” by a drug dealer was under instruction when she filmed the videos. Mr Brewin said Parker had also been involved in a recent car crash which left her with burns.
Passing sentence Judge James House KC told Parker he had to take into account that Parliament had recently raised the maximum sentence for such animal cruelty from six months to five years imprisonment. Judge House said it was “abhorrent” that violence had been inflicted on a defenceless animal for others’ entertainment.
As well as her prison sentence, Parker is now banned from keeping animals for 15 years. The judge told her he regarded her cruelty as “serious as could be”.
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