TWO people who tethered a cat to a wall with a washing line have been banned from owning pets for 10 years.

Patricia Davies, 60, and Peter Wellsbury, 39, of Princes Road, Ellesmere Port, were also given a community order and ordered to wear a curfew tag for 12 weeks after admitting charges of causing unnecessary suffering to Davies’s cat Casper, which eventually had to be put down.

The pair also pleaded guilty to charges of failing to provide veterinary care and failing to meet the cat’s needs by not providing it with a suitable environment.

Christopher Murphy, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, told Chester Magistrates Court how on August 14 last year, RSPCA inspector Anthony Joynes visited the property following an anonymous tip off.

On entering the backyard, which was ‘littered with rubbish’, he discovered the cat tethered through a door frame to a kitchen wall with a washing line attached to his collar.

Despite being in good body condition, Casper appeared to have a severe wound to his left ear and no access to shelter or water.

Mrs Davies, who had kept the cat for nine years, admitted she and Mr Wellsbury had recently come back from a two-week’ holiday, leaving a family member to look after Casper.

She said she ‘hadn’t got round’ to taking the cat to the vets and was trying to save money to do so, insisting his condition wasn’t as bad before they left.

The cat, who hadn’t been to a vet for two years, was subsequently taken into the custody of the RSPCA, later undergoing surgery and biopsies, during which he stopped breathing and was revived.

Tests showed the wound to Casper’s ear was cancerous and had been caused by sunburn.

Mrs Davies said she had believed keeping Casper tethered was ‘safer’ after her previous dog had been killed in an accident outdoors.

As well as a community order, they were banned from owning pets for 10 years, ordered to wear a curfew tag for 12 weeks and told to pay court costs of £250 each.