Lucky to be alive: The bunny torched in his hutch by drunk woman during family argument.
Cowering in the corner of his hutch, his fur and floppy ears scorched and blackened, this is poor Bunny the rabbit just minutes after a callous drunk set him alight.
The pet rabbit was left badly burned and blistered after Katey Barber set his hutch on fire for no apparent reason in September last year.
Magistrates were told that the 22-year-old had downed seven cans of lager when she turned on Bunny after burning clothes belonging to her mother's partner in the garden.
After prodding the terrified animal with a stick, she threw a burning piece of paper into the hutch and shut the door.
The rabbit began squealing and scrabbling around the hutch in pain, but when witnesses tried to intervene, Barber simply swore and locked them inside the house to prevent them going to the animal's aid.
Barber was then seen laughing and said: 'Look, the rabbit's running around on fire,' before eventually pouring water on the poor animal to put out the blaze.
Miraculously, Bunny survived but vets who examined the animal said he could be permanently scarred by the incident.
The rabbit is now terrified of any human contact and still may need to have part of one ear amputated, they said. Bunny is now back at home.
Stockport Magistrates heard that the attack happened in September last year while Barber was staying at her mother's home in Cheadle Heath, Stockport, Manchester.
Her mother and her boyfriend were away on holiday with Barber's sister, Rachel, who was the rabbit's owner.
Dominic Geelan, prosecuting, said two children were asleep upstairs in the property when the attack began.
'The defendant, for an unaccountable reason, decided to burn her mother's partner's clothes and began placing items of his clothing in a round drum, pouring turps on them and setting them alight,' he said.
Barber then set the hutch on fire and when witnesses tried to stop her they were 'met with expletives,' Mr Geelan added.
'The defendant said she didn't care,' Mr Geelan said.
'The rabbit by this point could be heard squealing in pain. The defendant started laughing and said, "Look, the rabbit's running around on fire".'
Barber, formerly of Stockport and now of Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal when she appeared in court on Friday.
She could be jailed for up to six months, or face up to a £20,000 fine, when she is sentenced later this month.
David Harley, reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'This defendant caused an unnecessary amount of suffering to this animal and it is difficult to comprehend the motive behind such a senseless attack.'
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