Agonizing death

Graz woman left her rabbits to starve to death: imprisonment looms

The rabbits didn't stand a chance. They had to starve to death (symbolic image).

(Bild: Pfotenhilfe)

How heartless and cruel do you have to be to leave your two rabbits to their fate over many weeks? The long-eared animals had neither water nor food and died an agonizing death.

At first it was thought that something had happened to the pet owner herself, because there were piles of advertising and newspapers outside the door. However, when the apartment in Graz was broken into, there was no trace of the 56-year-old. She had apparently moved in with her new partner several weeks ago. The unemployed woman had left the animals to their fate. 

"Animals were hungry and scared"
"She left the two rabbits in her apartment without food and water and without adequate exercise, so that the animals suffered an agonizing condition due to fear, hunger and lack of exercise and eventually died," the public prosecutor's indictment states.

However, the woman did not face trial for animal cruelty at the third attempt. "She cannot be found," explained Judge Angelika Hacker, who even tried twice to have the accused presented by the police. Only the son of her partner was at home on Tuesday. However, he stated that he did not know where his father's girlfriend was.

There are two addresses, and the woman was not to be found at either of them.

Richterin Angelika Hacker

She is now threatened with imprisonment
It now needs to be clarified whether the 56-year-old is deliberately evading the trial after the two appointments in October also fell through. It could then be that an arrest warrant is issued against the alleged animal abuser. And then, while in custody, she can think about what she did to her pets.