In an appalling incident, a woman who admitted to being dependent on drugs was harshly penalized with 12 months in prison for gruesomely mutilating her hamster and then eating it on videos shared over social media.
This week, a UK judge sharply condemned the actions of Emma Parker, 39, and gave her an incarceration sentence for performing an “abhorrent” act.
In May 2022, a disturbing video was uploaded to Facebook which depicted Parker viciously killing her daughter’s beloved pet, Mr. Nibbles. Disturbingly, laughter can be heard throughout the entire recording.
“The two videos seen on social media showed the defendant with a hamster in a hamster ball,” said the prosecutor Gordon Holt in the court.
“The defendant is holding the ball with a knife in the other hand,” he added. “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 said.
Acknowledging her guilt, the Englishwoman confessed to brutally killing and consuming Mr. Nibbles, pleading guilty to one charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. Reportedly telling police that she was assisting in its demise due to it being bitten by one of her pups, this heinous act has been met with severe condemnation from all over Britain.
Judge James House sternly scolded Parker for the malicious act of slicing a living hamster in half before “eating the two halves of the dissected hamster.”
Expressing his outrage, he declared that it was utterly “abhorrent” to witness violence inflicted on an innocent animal.
During her 27-year career, a veterinarian stated to the Mirror that she never once heard a hamster squeal as intensely and clearly as Mr. Nibbles did when she watched the footage.
After the disturbing clips were distributed on social media, a concerned individual contacted the RSPCA – an animal welfare charity – prompting an investigation into the incident.
The court heard evidence that Parker was being influenced by a drug dealer.
Parker refused to divulge the identities of those who recorded the material, explaining: “They are not nice people.”
Parker reports that since her arrest, her home has been vandalized with dog feces smeared in her mailbox. In addition, she claims to have sustained burns on her body from a recent car crash.
Nonetheless, the judge was relentless in their judgment and enforced a 12-month prison sentence on Parker while also denying her to own any pets for 15 years.
Following the court’s decision, RSPCA Inspector Andy Bostock spoke to the BBC and said: “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 added: “It has been upsetting and disturbing for everyone who has been involved in this case.”
