A woman who hurled a pet down a flight of stairs during a drunken argument will be sentenced in six months.
Tracey McGregor (28), of Eriskay Place, Perth, launched her sister’s hamster cage from the top of the stairs as tempers flared.
McGregor’s claim that the hamster was not in the cage was rejected by Sheriff Robert McCreadie and she was found guilty of causing it unnecessary suffering.
She appeared for sentence on Tuesday with a community payback order with a period of unpaid work suggested as punishment.
The court was told McGregor is awaiting an operation and would not be able to carry out such an order so sentence was deferred to September, after the surgery.
The court had heard McGregor ”saw red” when her sister, Leanne Anderson (17), placed her pet hamster on her lap.
The pair had been drinking and McGregor claimed Miss Anderson began pushing her when she pushed the hamster off her lap.
She said: ”I hate hamsters. I’m petrified of them so immediately brushed it off with the back of my hand.
”When I brushed the hamster off she got up and started pushing me out the room. She had been drinking well before I arrived.”
McGregor said she lost her temper when Miss Anderson threw her mobile phone against the wall, picked up the hamster cage and threw it down the 20ft stairwell.
”I accept it was a reckless and stupid thing to do,” she said.
The incident happened in McGregor’s stepfather’s house in Cairn Crescent on October 24.
Sheriff McCreadie said: ”I have no doubt she was guilty of the charge, in that she threw a hamster in a cage downstairs.”
Sentence had previously been deferred because of McGregor’s list of previous convictions which included assault and possessing an offensive weapon.
Sheriff McCreadie said: ”It was fortunate the hamster was not killed. Her (McGregor’s) behaviour clearly distressed others in the house, particularly children who ran out the house and were clearly upset. She doesn’t show any remorse and denied the hamster was in the cage when all the evidence was to the contrary.”