Spared jail, the vet’s nurse who poisoned her dog for attention

AN ‘ attention- seeking’ veterinary nurse who deliberately poisoned her own dog has been spared a jail sentence.

Georgina Bretman, 28, injected her black-and-white cocker spaniel Florence with a drug that made the animal collapse with convulsions and seizures.

The damage was so severe that the two-year- old animal could have died.

Bretman was convicted of causing the animal unnecessary suffering by injecting her with insulin. No explanation was offered as to why she had harmed her pet, but her former boss said she was an ‘attention seeker’.

Vets at the out-of-hours practise where she worked in Glasgow, Pet A&E, became suspicious after Florence was brought in for emergency treatment on several occasions after collapsing, twitching and vomiting. Tests showed she had a low glucose level every time, suggesting it was related to insulin. Bretman Poison: Georgina Bretman was later suspended and sacked and Mrs Herd contacted the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Bretman denied the charge but Sheriff Joan Kerr found her guilty of injecting Florence with insulin resulting in her requiring immediate treatment to ‘avoid coma or death’.

The dog has been under the care of the SSPCA since the allegations against Bretman came to light and has since returned to good health.

Yesterday Bretman was given a community payback order as a ‘direct alternative’ to jail, with the condition that she carry out 140 hours of unpaid work.