Florida: Tampa Teacher Charged With Cruelty in Starving Gerbil Cannibal Case

FLORIDA -- She says it was a misunderstanding. 

Tampa teacher Margaret Barthel claims that when she left for summer vacation, she left instructions with another employee to feed and water the pet gerbils in her classroom. 

But the employ apparently forgot, or Barthel is lying to cover her own forgetfulness. Who knows?

Either way, the gerbils were left for weeks over the summer without food water. They became so starved they went cannibal on each other. 

According to a police report filed by Officer Stephen Hiles, several Freedom High teachers said Barthel had a history of neglecting animals, including several finches that allegedly died in their cages, a ball python that died after being deprived of heat and frogs dissected alive by her students.

The conditions in the gerbil cages were deplorable, according to investigators, who were told of overcrowded cages, inadequate food and unchecked breeding practices.


"The gerbils were breeding so rapidly that they were eating their young and being born deformed," police Officer Stephen Hiles wrote in his report. "We were not able to determine the exact number of animals because they had cannibalized each other."

Now Barthel, head of the science department at Freedom High, has been charged with five counts of animal cruelty.

UPDATE TO STORY:

In Barthel's classroom at Freedom High, several class “pets” were abused and neglected: Nine gerbils died after they were deprived of food and water for more than two weeks, finches died of exposure, and a ball python froze to death.

As a result of the cruelty citations, Barthel has relinquished her (still-living) ball python to Hillsborough County Animal Services, paid a $1,000 fine, donated $500 to animal services, and committed to keeping animals out of her classroom permanently.

(True Crime Report - Sept 23, 2009)