A woman who claims she was addicted to drugs has been sentenced to 12 months for cutting up and eating her pet hamster in sick videos shared on social media.
A UK judge handed down the jail term this week to Emma Parker, 39, describing the act as “abhorrent.”
Footage posted to Facebook in May 2022 shows Parker killing her daughter’s pet, named Mr. Nibbles, as laughter is heard in the background.
“The two videos seen on social media showed the defendant with a hamster in a hamster ball,” prosecutor Gordon Holt told the court in Lincolnshire, England, according to media reports.
“The defendant is holding the ball with a knife in the other hand,” he continued. “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,’” Holt claimed.
The Englishwoman admitted she killed and ate Mr. Nibbles, pleading guilty to one charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. She had reportedly told police she was helping the hamster to die after it had been bitten by one of her dogs.
Judge James House admonished Parker for cutting the hamster in half while it was still alive before “eating the two halves of the dissected hamster.”
He said it was “abhorrent” that violence had been inflicted on a defenseless animal.
According to The Mirror, a veterinarian testified she watched the footage and had not heard a hamster squeal like Mr. Nibbles did during her 27-year career.
Once the clips were uploaded to social media, one disturbed viewer reported the incident to the animal welfare charity RSPCA, prompting an investigation.
The court was told Parker had been under the influence of a drug dealer.
Parker refused to reveal the identities of the people who filmed the footage, explaining: “They are not nice people.”
Since her arrest, Parker says her home has been vandalized and dog feces has been smeared in her mailbox. She also complained of sustaining burns to her body in a recent car crash.
But the judge didn’t take pity on Parker, delivering the 12-month sentence and forbidding her from owning a pet for 15 years.
After the verdict, RSPCA inspector Andy Bostock told the BBC: “We share the public’s revulsion at this horrific incident, and we’d like to thank the police for their support in this investigation.”
He continued: “It has been upsetting and disturbing for everyone who has been involved in this case.”