SE1 woman electronically tagged after dogs ate dead companion

41-year-old Amanda Button of Augustus Court on Old Kent Road pleaded guilty on 25 January to causing unnecessary suffering and failing to provide adequate food for her three dogs.

She appeared before Camberwell Green Magistrates Court on Tuesday 15 February for sentencing.

The magistrates jailed Button for 12 weeks suspended for 12 months, ordered that she do 110 hours of community service within the same period and pay £500 costs.

They also ruled that she should be under curfew for 28 days between 9.30pm and 5am and electronically tagged.

The RSPCA was called to Amanda Button's home after a neighbour complained about the dead dog in the garden.

Officers discovered three extremely thin dogs: two Staffy types, and a pit bull terrier type. The pit bull was dead and half eaten.

The dead dog was so decomposed that a post mortem could not be carried out so the cause of death could not be established.

"To starve those dogs so that they were reduced to eating their companion was extremely cruel, and we are glad that the sentence reflects the seriousness of the offence," said RSPCA inspector Esther Lincoln.