Browsing: Animals

Nicola Bradley and Tracy Dixon snapped their friend’s parrot’s neck (Picture: UK Animal Cruelty Files)

Two women who went to a friend’s house after a boozy night out and tortured and killed his pet parrot will face prison.

Nicola Bradley, 35, and Tracy Dixon, 47, doused Paul Crooks’s beloved African grey parrot Sparky in cleaning products and put her in a tumble drier before breaking her neck.

Bradley and Dixon had stayed the night at Mr Crooks’s home after he collected them from the city centre after they’d been on a night out.

But while he was out they tortured the poor bird, covering Sparky in shaving foam and Mr Muscle and throwing her in a tumble drier before eventually snapping her neck.

Dixon and Bradley both blamed each other for what happened, but after appearing at Carlisle magistrates court they were both found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

Mr Crooks found Sparky dead shortly after Bradley and Dixon left his home on the morning of July 30 last year.

He said Sparky was a gift from a former partner and had lived with him for five years.

Describing the parrot, he told the court: ‘Sparky was absolutely fine.

‘She used to sing a regimental march, combined with God Save the Queen, and the Coronation Street and Emmerdale theme tunes.

‘She was also a hit with friends as she’d start singing when I talked to them on video calls around the world.’

He told the court Dixon called him at 5.30am on the morning in question as they couldn’t get a taxi home from a night out.

He gave them a lift, but went to bed shortly after bringing the women home because he’d been working all week.

When he woke at 8.30am and went to the kitchen to make a coffee, Bradley told him he would be ‘foaming’ with them as she looked towards Sparky’s cage.

He saw there was shaving foam on both the cage and the bird, and when he began cleaning away the shaving foam Bradley picked up a bottle of Mr Muscle to help him.

Mr Crooks told her that was the wrong spray, telling her to use a water spray.

Returning to the kitchen later, he saw Bradley had a spoon with black paint on it.

Mr Crooks went to a local shop, returning half an hour later to see both women leaving his home.

Entering the house, he saw feathers on the living room floor and more in the kitchen, but couldn’t see Sparky.

When he found her, he described her as a ‘wet, black mess’.

He said: ‘I looked on top of the fridge freezer and on top of the kitchen unit but I couldn’t see Sparky.

‘Then I looked at her cage and noticed this unrecognisable mess, with her head hanging out of the cage.

‘She was just unrecognisable, covered in black substances. I started to panic.

‘I didn’t know what to do.’

Bradley and Dixon, who were granted bail, will be sentenced on August 22 at Carlisle crown court where magistrates warned they would face prison sentences.

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What happens when sharks mix with cocaine?(Credits: Getty Images)

We’re reaching the peak of summer which can only mean one thing: Shark Week is upon us.

The annual seven-day celebration of all things shark returns to Discovery Channel on July 23 with Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa, taking the reins to bring us endless fun, drama and WTF documentaries’ about the creatures which thanks to a certain 1975 Spielberg horror have become the most feared animal on the planet.

Among the shows coming our way is Cocaine Sharks on July 26, the natural successor to the absurd blockbuster smash Cocaine Bear which was somehow loosely based on a true story.

In what will no doubt be one of the most unmissable events in Shark Week, shark expert Tom ‘The Blowfish’ Hird will be heading to Florida Keys to investigate rumours sharks charged on cocaine have been spreading through the fishing community.

What actually happens when sharks and cocaine mix? Well, that’s what Hird will be looking to uncover.

Elsewhere for Shark Week, we’ll be keeping a close eye on Jaws vs The Meg, exploring a theory the humble great white was responsible for the extinction the megalodon, the shark which grew to around 50 foot.

Shark Week is back (Picture: Getty Images)

Then Shark vs Snake: Battle of The Bites will investigate why so many tiger shark corpses appear to be washing up on the beaches of West Australian with no sign of an attack. Are deadly sea snakes to blame?

Momoa admitted he’s been ‘begging’ to anchor Shark Week for years, taking over from last year’s host Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Jonson.

‘We’ve been trying to do it probably since 2018,’ he said.

Speaking to People, he added: ‘I’m hoping Shark Week goes well, and I can do another one, and then another one, and just pass on more information.’

Other highlights include Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy, which hopes to find the biggest great white shark ever recorded, and Air Jaws: Final Frontier, which looks at the huge ocean predators that soar well above the surface of the water.

Shark Week launches July 23 on the Discovery Channel.

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