Grandmother convicted of animal cruelty and made to wear electronic tag... for being too upset to pu

Was not sure of the best place for this but here seems as good as any.

Grandmother convicted of animal cruelty and made to wear electronic tag... for being too upset to put elderly dog down - [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019685/Grandmother-Pauline-Spoor-convicted-animal-cruelty-wear-electronic-tag.html#ixzz1TOwB91se]link[/u rl]

A distraught grandmother has been hauled into court and ordered to wear an electronic tag - because she couldn't face having her elderly dog put down. Devastated Pauline Spoor was so attached to her beloved chocolate labrador Dexter she could not face having him destroyed, even though the frail animal was nearly 18-years-old and struggled to walk.

The RSPCA broke into her home and, after finding the dog with numerous medical problems, charged 71-year-old Mrs Spoor with causing unnecessary suffering to her loyal companion. Dexter, who had been suffering from fur loss, arthritis and conjunctivitis, was put to sleep by a vet the day after he was found by the animal welfare charity.

After being hauled in front of Tameside magistrates, retired cashier Mrs Spoor was spared jail but ordered to wear a tag and given a nine-hour daily curfew. Divorcee Mrs Spoor admitted an animal cruelty charge and said she was 'blinded by love' for her pet after being fined £250 costs and given the three-month curfew. She was told by magistrates she must remain at home between 9pm and 6am and must also complete a community order.

Mrs Spoor, who had her other dog Gizmo returned to her, said she had Dexter for 11 years after rescuing him from abandonment and that the animal had become her 'best friend'. She said: 'I know I've done wrong but I feel absolutely humiliated at having to wear a tag as if I am some common criminal. It just seems so over the top. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

Are these people on drugs? an elderly woman who loved her dog and couldn't go through with having it destroyed gets tagged, community service, a fine and must not leave her house between 9pm and 6am WTF? What do they anticipate she is going to do during those hours? Go and kick the # out of the neighbourhood dogs? Cuddle and kiss them to death?

They have magnanimously allowed her to keep her other dog - they are all heart! They even claim clemency because she was not banged up.

Look I understand that animal cruelty is an important topic and there certainly are some mean bastards out there who hurt animals on purpose, but this old dear was guilty of the fear of losing her companion of 16 years nothing more - where has the commonsense gone? I'll tell you what the reason for this is, ill trained magistrates who always apply whatever sentence they are told by the clerk of the court, applying no commonsense to matters and no true judgement of the facts, they hear a guilty plea and just give the sentence.

It is time for the magistrates courts in this country to have a radical overhaul and proper trained judges put in place, enough of these part time judges moonlighting from their normal careers as Estate Agents!

A look at the 'criminal':

I think the incomming comets are causing humanity too loose its mind . At least those who are prone that way .

Poor lady. I would not putan animal down either if it was dying a natural death .

We should not interfer with the natural cycle and take a life before its due thus causing it tore birth in that body untill the soul departs from in in the allotted time span .

well it is animal cruelty in the obvious sense that the dog was suffering, but making the old woman wear a tag is pretty far out. I know how attached people can get to their pets. My grandma treats her two dogs like their her own kids.
This is even more rediculous given that here in Australia a man drown his labrador in his pool with a scuba diving weight belt because he didnt want to pay the vet bill. Got fined $3000 and that was the end of it. Crying shame
www.brisbanetimes.com.au...

fur loss, arthritis and conjunctivitis

That's hardly animal cruelty. That's simple aging.

Now if the dog was left to wallow in his own waste and riddled with uncared for sores and wounds I could understand the cruelty charge but to simple permit the dog to exist as elderly? Come on.

We should be raiding hospice centers across the country and charging the doctors and nurses with cruelty and crimes against humanity then.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


true, true. i didn't consider that. I just can't get over the whole tag thing. They have to keep track of her now because she didn't want to lose her companion?

If the story would have been that a medic was with them and put the dog asleep with giving her a chance to say a last goodbye, it would have been a lot more humane from the RSPCA side.

In this case I blame the RSPCA for blowing the case up out of proportions, its obvious this is for their own agenda, this case could have dealt with so much differently if they really cared about both sides of this argument.

The tag is indeed stupid since she still has another dog, and why does she get to keep that dog since she was convicted for animal cruelty? Is the judge biased?

So here we have a triple fail;

Old lady neglects to humanely end the life of her sick dog, note; while if it were a human companion it would be illegal in the UK.

RSPCA blows case out of proportions.

Judge is stupid or ignorant/biased.

All these fails make me sad.

I know an elderly couple with two older dogs who did this same thing.. one of their dogs couldn't walk anymore, was in constant pain, and it was time for this dog to go... but they waited and waited and the dog ended up suffering quite a bit before it finally died. In my mind, that's cruel. Sometimes people love their animals so much that they don't do the right things (hoarders are a good example).

my uncle recently lost his dog. she was old and started having multiple strokes.
it's really hard to let your dog die by your words but we had to put her down.
i can understand why this old lady couldn't do it, loosing a friend sucks.

hi op
bloody silliness at its max
its cruel not to put a dog down
so what about us humans when diagnosed with a terminal illnesses
is it cruel to keep us alive
poor woman

I had a cat that was going on it's 16th year and by that time he was looking sickly. He lost a lot of weight and was loosing his fur because his organs were slowly shutting down because of old age. I didn't put him down because he wasn't in any pain and because I could of never of gone through with a euthination. I let nature take it's coarse because my cat knew he was dying and there was nothing I could do about.

If this old lady's dog was in no pain from it's ailments, I say let nature take it's coarse. If the dog was experiencing a lot of pain then yea I may agree to have it euthinized so the dog doesn't have to have a slow painful death.

But accusing this lady for animal cruelty is a step too far especially if they BROKE INTO HER HOUSE. That is just unbelieveable. Does the RSPCA have any authority to break into someone's home to see if the occupants are being cruel to their pets?? No they don't. And to top it off they take the dog and put it down. And just to add insult to injury they give back her other dog.

Commen sense tells me that a person who exhibits animal cruelty shouldn't be allowed to have pets but this lady wasn't acting cruelly, she loved her dog to death, (pardon the pun).

I agree with all the comments, interesting how some move the conversation to human euthanasia.

The thing I do not get is the whole RSPCA breaking down the door, they obviously got an 'anonymous tip off', but where do they get the authority to batter down an old ladies door? As someone said above it could have been handled by them so much better.

It depends on the state of a dog, this could indeed be considered animal cruelty if the dog needlessly suffered. If that is the case (and according to authorities, it is), I guess she indeed deserves the tag. Wearing it is the least she can do to honor the now dead poor animal.

We should be raiding hospice centers across the country and charging the doctors and nurses with cruelty and crimes against humanity then.

Yes we should, because the basic human right for euthanasia is being denied in many of them.

I have had much loved dogs with arthritis,who were very old-near blind and with hardly any teeth left.on all sorts of expensive pills.
Like this poor lady said,my dogs still wagged their tails and trotted into the field/woods for a walk.
They still loved life,even though they were slowly winding down.

To me my dogs are a part of my family-I ain't a species racist.
I have asked myself-would my old relatives want me too kill him or her,just because of being too old and having a dodgy knee or hip?
The answer is of course no they would not want that-and nor would my dogs.
I have told this to vets,and they are OK about it.

The police and RSPCA should hang their heads in shame about how this case was handled IMO.
And that poor lady should be given compensation and counseling at the very least-They broke into her house and killed her dog-who was her best friend.

And they call her the criminal-and make her wear a tag for crying out loud?
Like a common criminal-you get a tag for GBH/assault or burglary in the UK. .

Disgusting behavior by the law IMO.
I would give this poor old lady a hug if I saw her on the street.

She Is a victim of bad justice I think.

Originally posted by TheMessenger1

But accusing this lady for animal cruelty is a step too far especially if they BROKE INTO HER HOUSE. That is just unbelieveable. Does the RSPCA have any authority to break into someone's home to see if the occupants are being cruel to their pets?? No they don't. And to top it off they take the dog and put it down. And just to add insult to injury they give back her other dog.

Commen sense tells me that a person who exhibits animal cruelty shouldn't be allowed to have pets but this lady wasn't acting cruelly, she loved her dog to death, (pardon the pun).

I must strongly disagree with you on this. Arthritis is extremely painful for anyone and this dog could barely manage to walk I believe. forcing this animal to live through this type of suffering for our own
'selfish" reasons is animal cruelty, It is putting our feelings ahead of the suffering animals. She did this. ..but
not because she WAS cruel but because she loved him so much. She still had a responsibility to do what is best for her friend.We, as animal caretakers make this promise to our furry friends that we will care for them and protect them. They learn to trust us and rely on us for this. We must push aside our own feelings when it comes to the time to end suffering. We have to. I think we should be able to do this with people too,but thats another discussion entirely.
What they did to this woman after though is cruel in my opinion. It wasnt ignorance that refrained her from ending his suffering,nor cruelty itself, but just a sad old lady hurting too much to be able to go through with it. The logic behind such harshness is disgusting.Especially when people who are cruel in nature to animals get a slap on the hand. I am a huge supporter of charging animal cruelty cases very harshly.I believe that we need harsher punishments and more broad laws,because too much is overlooked.
But this little old lady is being used as an example.nothing truly "harsh' about her punishment..it is more degrading it seems.

thats a little overboard with the tag an all.


wonder if someday my kids will be punished for not putting thier old dependant diaper wearing parents down?

reply to post by spacedonk

Marxist psychopaths, dont you think so?

What the hell is wrong with your country!?!?!? I will never set foot in the United States. I'd feel safer visiting Iraq.
An electronic monitoring ankle bracelet? What did the think she was going to do? Go out and find aging animals and force them to stay alive?

reply to post by The Cusp


RSPCA is in the UK, but anyway...

There are few obvious inaccuracies in the report which lend me to believe that this is beign distorted for typical Daily Mail drama. First they claim the RSPCA broke into the house to find the dog.

The RSPCA is only a Charity and has no such power. They would have to seek a warrant and have the Police do so. Also, the RSPCA, it is claimed, charged her. Again, they have no such power and would be required to submit a complaint to the Police for a charge to be brought.

With these two things in mind, I suspect we're not getting the full story here, so for that reason I am going to withold my scorn for anybody as we're clearly missing a lot of the facts.

The RSPCA, for example, must have recieved complaints about the animal to have even investigated and they must have had serious concerns as a result to get the warrant. They also usually try to reason with pet owners before resorting to drastic action...

It is about laying the correct foundation for the fascist's of tomorrow. Notice how she has to be collared? In a few years(might take another generation) the elderly will be treated in the same manner as pet's are treated today.

Imagine cop's breaking down your door and doing this to you(fining you, and making you wear an electronic collar) because your parent or grandparent is too old and ill.

reply to post by spacedonk




Are you on drugs this old bag should have done the right thing. Who cares about her age the right thing is the same for a 6 year old or a 60 year old.


I feel bad for the dog the suffered because she was to crazy to do the right thing. It is the same reason I don't feel sorry for the old cat lady with 20 dead cats in her house. I say lock her up in jail that would teach her a lesson I bet.

She sounds like the kind of person the would pull the wings off a butterfly so she can keep it around. I say shame on her and also shame on anyone who pities her.