RIDICULOUS RSPCA PROSECUTION FAILS

Another RSPCA attempt to criminalise an ordinary law-abiding person has failed,

A case that not only failed the evidential test, but would also have failed any reasonable person's public interest test.

BUT STILL GENERATES PUBLICITY FOR THE RSPCA.

"ITS CHEAPER TO PROSECUTE THAN ADVERTISE"

A PUB landlady has been cleared of animal cruelty charges.
The RSPCA prosecuted Dawn Walker after a pet rabbit was savaged to death by a Staffordshire Bull Terrier when both animals were left in her care.
But after hearing that the 37-year-old has done everything she could to protect the rabbit, JPs found her not guilty.
Gateshead magistrates heard that the animals belonged to Ms Walker’s grown-up daughter who was living temporarily with her in a flat above the Gloucester pub on High West Street, Gateshead, which she manages.
The rabbit and dog were bought when they were six-months-old and had grown up together.
She said they had played together without any problems.
But she said she never left them alone. She would either chain up the dog or put the rabbit in its hutch.
The animal charity, however, claimed that Ms Walker had been negligent by placing the ginger and white rabbit on a balcony roof alone with the dog, an act that resulted in its death.
A woman living in a flat that overlooks the pub alerted the RSPCA when she saw the dog with the rabbit in its mouth.
The first Ms Walker knew about the incident was when an RSPCA official knocked on her door.
The rabbit was found badly injured and was so traumatised that it died later.
There was no evidence of any puncture marks but it had suffered internal injuries from being thrown around.
Ms Walker said: “I had to go downstairs to the pub. The rabbit had gone into its hutch so I shut the hutch door.
“I don’t know if it chewed its way out.
“There was evidence that the inside of the hutch had been chewed so I think this is how it got out.”
She added: “I have always been adamant that I did everything I could to look after the rabbit and the dog and was very shocked to be taken to court. I am delighted that my name has been cleared but I am very sad for the demise of the rabbit.”
Since the incident in January, her daughter is now living away from the pub and has taken the dog with her.
Ms Walker’s solicitor, Michael Foley, said: “She was saddened and shocked by what happened. She did everything she could to look after the animals and there was no evidence that the animals had been neglected. This was an unfortunate one-off incident.”
Ms Walker had denied failing to meet the needs of the pet to be housed apart from a predator species resulting in its death and causing unnecessary suffering to a rabbit.
She was cleared on both charges.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2010/10/15/pub-landlady-cleared-in-animal-cruelty-case-72703-27478222/