Man, 59, killed his pet rabbit by cooking it for THREE minutes in a microwave

UNITED KINGDOM -- A cruel pet owner killed his rabbit by cooking it in a MICROWAVE for three minutes, a court heard.

Paul Rogers bought the animal – which he named Fluffy George Fudge – from a pet shop and fed it dandelions in his guest house room.

But after five days he horrifically turned on the pet and put it in the microwave and switched it on for three minutes.

Rogers, 59, told a fellow resident it ‘squealed and wriggled’ as it suffered a lingering and painful death.

The other man found it dead lying on a saucepan lid when he went to feed it in Rogers’ room.

Rogers pleaded guilty with diminished responsibility to causing an animal unnecessary suffering and will be sentenced next month.

JPs that he had since become distressed about the incident, expressed remorse and maintains ‘all life is sacred’.

Magistrates in Cheltenham, Glos., heard that Rogers bought the rabbit ‘to rescue it from hoodies’ and took it to the Dorchester Guesthouse in Gloucester.

A few days later he told another resident he had put the pet in the microwave -  he thought he was taking the mickey. But Rogers then left the guest house ‘in a state’ shortly afterwards and he found the dead animal.

Rogers turned up at a nearby overnight homeless shelter where he told a support worker that the rabbit had squealed and wriggled during the ordeal.

He was then interviewed by police at a local mental health facility where he confessed.

Prosecuting Rafe Turner told the court: “This is a single matter simply involving causing unnecessary suffering to a rabbit – a domestic pet.

“It lived with him for a short time, a matter of days, when he chose to put the rabbit in a microwave at the premises at which he was living, that being a room at the Dorchester Guesthouse.

“Quite clearly what was admitted was the demise of the rabbit, and that is what has occurred.

“There was a lingering and painful death which falls quite squarely into the most serious sentencing category. There was an attempt to kill or torture the rabbit and it is blatantly obvious that was the case.”

Helen Smith, defending, said Rogers’ culpability was far less than an average person because he was homeless, in poor health and had been sleeping rough for two months.

She said he was now very distressed about the incident, has expressed remorse and maintains  ‘all life is sacred’.

She told the bench: “When he was interviewed he was medically unwell.

“You have had read to you part of the interview done with Mr Rogers and I am sure you will find some of those comments alarming but also perceive an odd train of thought coming from him which gives testament that he is not a well man.

“This is, from his point of view, a cry for help. These words were coming from a man that suffers mental health issues.”

Rogers of no fixed abode pleaded guilty with diminished responsibility to causing an animal unnecessary suffering.

Sentencing was adjourned until November 4 while probation officers produce a report.

(SWNS - October 10, 2014)