An elderly woman from Siete Aguas with no previous criminal convictions has become the first person in the Valencian region to receive a prison sentence for animal cruelty.

The woman, who was handed down a five-month suspended sentence, was found guilty of repeatedly and unjustifiably beating her pet dog with a broomstick, strangling it to death and disposing its body by putting it inside a bin liner and throwing it on a piece of wasteland near her home on May 19th, 2006.

The private prosecution was brought by the Valencian Plant and Animal Protection Society (Svpap) whose legal representative, Alejandro Estrems, explained "this could be the severest sentence passed down in the whole of Spain as the longest we are aware of is a three-month term passed down by a judge in Santander."

Mr Estrems went on to explain that the defendant "is an elderly woman who was unaware of the gravity of the crime she was committing. She is sorry for what she has done and has accepted her sentence, and so we're satisfied."