MUM WHO LOST BABY "HOUNDED" BY RSPCA
(Cutting Daily Express Janueary 28th 2003 by Cyril Dixon)
A GRIEVING mother has been taken to court by the RSPCA for neglecting a pet rabbit as she lay in hospital recovering from the loss of her unborn child.
Distraught Elizabeth Vallis and husband Simon forgot to feed the white Angora when they were engulfed in sorrow after losing one of the twins they were expecting.
Despite the couple explaining their dilemma, the animal charity decided to prosecute them for causing unnecessary suffering.
Yesterday, after admitting the offence and receiving a six-month conditional discharge, Mrs Vallis, 26, and her 28-year-old husband condemned the charity's "insensitivity". "We could not believe the RSPCA were going to prosecute," said Mrs Vallis, from Weymouth, Dorset. "I was is hospital because the doctors thought one of the twins Iwas carrying had died. Simon was devastated. We both were. "Simon was also looking after our other two children as well as trying to cope with the idea that one of the twins had died before even being born. Thankfully the surviving healthy twin,
Sophie,was born alive but she will need a lot of hospital treatment and is in a specialist ward.
It was the worst time of our lives.
We told the RSPCA inspector all that but they took us to court. We could not believe how insensitive they were."
David Bell, prosecuting, told Weymouth magistrates that the rabbit, - - - called Clifford, was found by a neighbour who had agreed to look after the couple's dogs.
He said: "The animal was in a very poor condition and was described by a vet as chronically underfed.
"The vet concluded this rabbit had been caused unnecessary suffering through a failure to provide adequate food and water over a period of one week, possibly longer."
The chairman of the magistrates, Mrs Pamela Homer, told the couple: "We take this charge very seriously but we understand the exeeptional family circumstances."
An RSPCA spokesman said: "This was not wilful neglect. Clearly this couple were having problems looking after the animals, they just took on too much." //cutting ends
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