BORDER Terrier Gyp was starved so severely by his owner, Marie Connelly, that when rescued by the RSPCA he had begun to gnaw at a dead dog.
Gyp had been locked up in a room with a bull mastiff also belonging to Connelly.
When RSPCA Inspector Garry Palmer was called to the home in Pallister Avenue, Middlesbrough, in November 2002 he saw Gyp eating the dead mastiff as it lay in its own filth.
A post-mortem examination revealed the mastiff had died of starvation, while black and tan coloured Gyp was thin and craved human attention.
Connelly, 35, was jailed for three months and banned for life from keeping all animals by Teesside Magistrates in June last year after admitting two charges of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
Happily, Gyp is now fully recovered and is being cared for by new owners.
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