Friday, March 08, 2013

Animal ban for student who fried flatmate's hamster

A student who cooked a hamster in a frying pan has been banned from keeping animals for eight years. James White, 21, admitted to killing his Korean flatmate’s female adult Syrian hamster after a drinking binge, but claimed it was dead before he put it in the pan.



White, in the final year of a Politics and International Relations degree, was in a drunken stupor when police arrived at his York University digs, with a “pungent” cooking smell coming from his room. Officers found the hamster in a pan on a lit hob. White, who has no recollection of the night, is said to have exclaimed: “I f****** fried it!”

District judge Roy Anderson read a letter from the hamster’s owner, who said he was still flatmates with White and that he hadn’t had time to name his pet before it died. The judge banned White from keeping animals for eight years, ordered him to do 120 hours’ unpaid community work and told him to pay £1,000 prosecution costs.



He said: “By your treatment of this small, unfortunate rodent you have destroyed your character.” The case had been set for a trial at Selby magistrates court, in North Yorkshire, but the guilty plea was made after the judge indicated White would be convicted of the offence even if the animal was dead before it was cooked.

There's a news video here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, no. The next time a hamster dies in a pet shop, have them fry it up and make him eat it.

Lurker111

Anonymous said...

Asshat. People who mistreat pets invariably have other unsavory personality traits.

Candy said...

Jerk! Eight years??! How about animal ban for life.He'll always be a jerk. Eight years won't cure that.

WL said...

Oh the irony, he is studying Politics and International Relations and ends up frying his Korean flatmate's hamster.

I agree, this dumbass should have received a lifetime ban

Insolitus said...

If he doesn't have any recollection of the nigh, how can he say the hamster was dead before he fried it?

In any case. He's just 21. People can change, sometimes for the better. Lifetime ban would have been too much.