Man ripped head off cockatiel during row

A man ripped the head off his partner's treasured pet cockatiel during a row. Richard Owen knocked a coffee cup out of Gillian Hopson's hand, smashed the cage and killed the bird.

He then attacked her chinchillas yelling: "They've got to die too." One has since died.



Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard Jones told magistrates in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, the row was over their dog.

Owen, 30, of Aberystwyth, was found guilty of assaulting Gillian and admitted killing the bird, a protected species. He will be sentenced later.