'Ozzy' pet parrot killer jailed

Pugh said he could not remember attacking the bird

A man who admitted ripping the head off his pet parrot after a night out has been jailed for five and a half months.

Paul Bryan Pugh, from Low Hill, Wolverhampton, also received a life ban from keeping any animal.

The 39-year-old's sentencing was postponed for several hours on Monday after he turned up drunk at court.

District judge Shamim Qureshi called Pugh the "Ozzy Osbourne of Wolverhampton", referring to when the rocker bit the head off a bat on stage.

Ordering him to serve four months for causing unnecessary suffering to the bird and a further six weeks of a previous sentence from which he was released on licence, the judge said: "The parrot had no chance of fleeing.

"You proceeded to kill the bird in front of your wife and child and it was a disgusting incident for anyone to have to witness.

"This has all the hallmarks of pop stars on stage. You are what might be described as the Ozzy Osbourne of Wolverhampton for the way you have treated this bird."

Pugh had turned up at Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court and told reporters he had drunk eight pints of lager.

He was then carried to the cells so he could sober up.

Last month, Pugh admitted cruelty through his solicitor after he was deemed to be too drunk to appear in court himself.

Magistrates had heard he could not remember killing his parrot, called Baby, during a row with his wife Debbie on 5 February this year.

Roger Price, prosecuting for the RSPCA, described how Pugh had aimed a blow at his 15-year-old son before stumbling into the living room and pulling the parrot from its cage. Amrit Johal, defending, said his client was an alcoholic and could remember nothing of the incident.

RSPCA Inspector Jackie Hickman welcomed the decision to jail Pugh on Monday.

She said: "The incident was horrific. The lifetime ban will mean that this is not going to happen again."