A Bradford woman who stabbed her pregnant cat because it had urinated on her sofa has been sentenced to a 12- month community order.

Donna Murgatroyd, 30, appeared before Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court today for the second time after pleading guilty last month to causing unnecessary suffering to the 18-month-old cat.

At the first hearing in July, she was banned from keeping animals for ten years but after reading a pre-sentence report yesterday she was dealt a medium-level community order to be made up of one year’s supervision at the Together Women Project and six months on an alcohol treatment programme.

Magistrates heard how on April 26 this year Murgatroyd rang the police in an intoxicated state saying she had murdered the cat.

Officers arrived at her home in Basil Street, Canterbury , to find her “tearful and emotional”. She was cradling the animal in a blanket and it had been stabbed in its back, said Nigel Monaghan prosecuting for the RSPCA.

“Thankfully the outcome was not as serious as it could have been. The RSPCA have found a good home for the cat and there has been a happy ending,” said Mr Monaghan.

Other cats and a dog also living at her property have since been signed over to the RSPCA, he added.

The prosecution asked for case costs totalling £2,236.71 but magistrates ordered Murgatroyd, who is on benefits, to pay just £5 a week for one year to total £260.

In Murgatroyd’s defence her solicitor Victoria Molloy told magistrates her client led “a difficult life” and suffered psychotic episodes because of trauma she experienced. She had been drinking at the time of the incident.