Woman traps 23 cats in wheelie bin leaving eight crushed to dying in Epsom

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Sharon Claire Price, 52, crammed the felines into a container and secured the lid, leaving survivors standing on corpses as she was banned from owning pets for 10 years

Everything you need to know

• A woman has been banned from owning pets for 10 years after cramming 23 cats into a wheelie bin, leaving eight to die from suffocation and crushing.
• Sharon Claire Price, 52, from Epsom, secured the bin lid with an old microwave and abandoned the cats without food or water. The surviving 15 cats were found standing on the corpses of those who had perished.
• At Kingston Crown Court, Price received a four-month suspended jail sentence and was ordered to pay £1,000 costs. She was also prohibited from keeping cats and dogs for a decade following the RSPCA prosecution.
• Housing association workers discovered the horrific scene, with the surviving cats severely dehydrated, malnourished and flea-infested. Veterinarians confirmed the cats at the bottom were “slowly crushed and suffocated” by the weight above them.
• A vet stated: “All of the 23 cats suffered immensely. They had no option but to stand or lay on the dead bodies of other cats below them.”
• Price claimed she found the cats in woodland and was advised to put them in a bin, but RSPCA enquiries revealed she had been told to contact them directly instead. The court heard she struggles with mental and physical health problems.
• RSPCA Inspector Liz Wheeler said: “People will be absolutely shocked to think of what these poor 23 cats went through trapped in this wheelie bin.”

READ THE FULL STORY: Woman traps 23 cats in bin and leaves them for dead in vile animal cruelty case