Wales - Where Sheep (And Small Dogs And Cats) Have Even More Reasons To Be Nervous...

Sally Ann Rudge, from Newport, was given an 18-week custodial sentence last month after her pets fatally attacked the other dog in the Bettws area of the city.

Newport magistrates had also ordered that the Staffordshire bull terriers, Ruby and Kia, be destroyed and disqualified her from owning a dog for five years.

You just know there's a 'But...' coming, don't you?

Appearing via video link from Eastwood Park Prison, Rudge, 42, of Lambourne Way, appealed against her sentence at Cardiff Crown Court.

Did she have any actual grounds..?

Prosecutor Leah Pollard said that the defendant had previously been subject to a community protection notice after dogs in her care had killed a number of cats.

I wonder how close Newport is to Merthyr Tydfil..? Perhaps pet owners should be granted the same rights to protect their livestock given to farmers?

She said that when her Staffordshire bull terriers killed Yorkshire terrier Titch while she was walking them on Lambourne Way on May 10, they were on leads but not muzzled – as they were supposed to be.

The court also heard that Rudge had a previous conviction under the Dangerous Dogs Act from 2012.

So, the appeal is bound to fail?

Eugene Egan, representing the defendant, said that his client had given Titch’s owner a “verbal warning” and asked him to pick up his dog.

Wait, what? That's the best thing you can offer? Doesn't that help the prosecution?

Well, clearly not.

The judge, Recorder Simon Foster, sitting with magistrates Christopher Dale and Stephen Withers, quashed the original sentence from last month.

They jailed Rudge for 12 weeks, suspended for one year, ordered that Ruby and Kia, currently under the care of her ex-partner pending the appeal, not be destroyed on condition that they be muzzled and on a lead at all times.

I hope the next pet (or toddler) they savage is one of the judge's or magistrate's.

But then, they don't mingle with people like this, do they? So they have no vested interest in ensuring that the neighbourhood is safe. It's never their neighbourhood.

And so vigilante justice is looking more and more likely.