Vet nurse who deliberately poisoned her own dog escapes jail

An attention-seeking veterinary nurse who deliberately poisoned her dog has escaped a jail sentence as she was told she had shown no remorse for causing her pet such suffering.

Georgina Bretman, 28, injected her black-and-white cocker spaniel, Florence, with a drug that made the animal collapse and suffer from convulsions and seizures.

The damage was so severe that the two-year-old dog could have died.

Bretman was previously convicted, after a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court, of causing the animal unnecessary suffering on June 23, 2013 by injecting it with insulin.

Although no explanation was offered as to why she had harmed her pet, the court was told she was an “attention-seeker”.

On one occasion her employer gave her an evening off and then correctly predicted that, within a few hours, the dog would suddenly become ill and be brought back to the surgery for emergency treatment.

In what is understood to the first prosecution of its kind, Sheriff Joan Kerr found Bretman, of Rhu, Helensburgh, guilty of a charge under the Animal Health and Welfare Act, of injecting Florence with insulin, resulting in her requiring immediate treatment to “avoid coma or death”.

The dog has been under the care of the SSPCA since the allegations came to light and has recovered.

Bretman was given a community payback order of 140 hours of unpaid work as a “direct alternative” to jail and banned from owning a dog for two years. The sheriff ordered that Florence should be sold or rehoused.

She told Bretman: “Flo was vulnerable and completely dependent on you for her care. Your motivation to cause her this suffering may never be known, you have chosen not to shed any light on that when you spoke to a social worker. You have expressed no remorse for causing Flo such suffering.”

Staff at Pets A&E in Glasgow became suspicious after the dog was brought in for emergency treatment on several occasions, always suffering from the same symptoms, including a low glucose level.

The Scottish SPCA said it was disappointed Bretman had not been disqualified from owning a dog for longer. A spokesman added that the spaniel had “missed out on a very large chunk of her life” due to the length of time the case has taken.