A female solicitor was jailed today after she condemned her pet dog Roxy to an horrific slow death locked in the kitchen for over a week.
Katy Gammon, 27, a trainee lawyer specialising in medical negligence cases, went to work leaving her five-year-old boxer puppy trapped without food and water.
She failed to check in on the dog for a week and went to stay with her mother - during which time the animal died in agony.
Tragic Roxy lay undiscovered for ten weeks by which time her body was so decomposed an RSPCA inspector had to use a snow shovel to pick it up.
Gammon was sentenced to 18 weeks behind bars and banned from owning animals for life, at Bristol Magistrates Court.
Animal lovers launched an online petition and gathered 100,000 signatures for justice for Roxy the boxer dog.
A number of protestors gathered outside the court in anticipation of Gammon's appearance, campaigning for "tougher sentencing for animal cruelty".
The court had previously heard Gammon trapped the dog in the kitchen by tying a rope to the handle and fixing it to a hook in the hallway.
Roxy had frantically clawed at the door, leaving fragments on the floor, as she tried in vain to escape before dying in agony - which would have taken around six days.
It was heard Roxy, which was never house trained, was known to urinate and defecate in the house in Lawrence Weston, Bristol, so Gammon decided to confine her.
The body of the pet was found at the end of August last year after Gammon started staying with her mother at a nearby address and initially began returning to feed Roxy.
But she then dislocated her knee and was unable to get to the house and instead claimed her ex-boyfriend was feeding the animal.
But Gammon admitted that this was a lie and on November 3 a neighbour alerted police after seeing flies swarming in the kitchen of Gammon's house.
Police arrived and were greeted by a strong smell of decomposition and the kitchen still closed with the rope.
They called the RSPCA and the remains of Roxy were removed for a post mortem.
A vet said Roxy would have taken up to six days to die gradually, painfully, first becoming blind and falling into a coma before finally passing away.
Gammon, who worked for the eminent Bristol-based legal firm of Lyons Davidson, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of cruelty.
She admitted to causing unnecessary suffering to the dog and failing to prevent causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
