A Bradford man has been jailed for four months for leaving his kitten’s horrendous eye infection untreated – causing the eyeball to rupture and burst.

Raja Zulqurnean, 36, of Southmere Oval, Great Horton, Bradford pleaded guilty to an offence of causing unnecessary suffering to his kitten, who was aged just eight weeks old at the time.

Bradford Magistrates’ Court heard on Tuesday how the RSPCA was called to reports of a suffering kitten at the address after a resident saw the poorly pet’s eye on August 22, 2017.

Inspector Emma Dingley was sent to investigate and found the suffering kitten cowering in a nearby garage and was shocked by the severity of his eye infection.

She said: “The resident told me the kitten was in the garage as she had been trying to feed it.

“It was 10pm and pitch black when I went inside to try find the kitten and although I couldn’t see him I could smell the infection it was so bad.

“Then when I brought him out and held my torch up to him I could see the severity of the infection, which had caused his eyeball to rupture and burst.

“The kitten, who had sadly not even been given a name, was also severely underweight.

“I rushed him to a nearby vets who also found the kitten was infested with fleas causing flea anemia - which is when the fleas drain so much blood it causes the body to shut down.

“The vet said if the kitten had been healthy he could have had the eye removed but because of his medical problems he wouldn’t survive the anaesthetic and the kindest thing to do was put him to sleep to end his suffering.”

Inspector Dingley later interviewed Zulqurnean and he admitted the kitten was his but said he had no money to seek veterinary treatment for him.

She added: “He said didn’t know the kitten was living in the cold garage and also said he had no name for the cat.

“The magistrate was disgusted by the photographs of the eye injury which were shown in court - and said he couldn’t bring himself to look at them.

“It is so sad that the kitten was only a few weeks old and during that time suffered terribly. It is such a shame because he was such a friendly little guy and when I picked him up that night he was enjoying cuddles and attention. It was an extremely upsetting case.”