A woman has been banned from keeping animals for life after she left her dog to starve to death.

Bubbles, a two-year-old Jack Russell Cross, was found emaciated and dead in the care of Chernice Merton.

Merton, 26, pleaded guilty to animal welfare charges at Colchester Magistrates’ Court.

The Bramble Road, Witham, resident admitted failing to provide appropriate diet and veterinary treatment for her dog.

Magistrates disqualified her from keeping all animals for life, as well as ordering her to complete 100 hours unpaid work, and pay £800 costs and a £60 victim surcharge, during a hearing on Tuesday.

The RSPCA was called in December 2014 after Bubbles’ emaciated body was taken to a vet.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had starved together.

RSPCA inspector Sarah Elmy said: “This poor dog was completely skin and bones.

“She had no remaining internal fat and her gastro-intestinal tract was empty except for a plastic sweet wrapper, which suggests she had been so hungry she had been forced to scavenge rubbish.

“There were no pre-existing abnormalities which could have explained this weight loss.

“Vet records also revealed Bubbles weighed less when she was brought in at two years of age than she had at ten weeks, when she was brought in for her second injections.

“It is hard to fathom how anyone could just leave an animal to suffer in this way.

“Bubbles must have experienced extreme suffering to have died in this sad way.”