A teenage girl has been banned from owning an animal for five years after leaving a pet cat and hamster without food and water for days in a filthy flat.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons and admitted abandoning the animals in her Shipley flat, was also fined £50 and ordered to pay £45 in costs.

Keighley Youth Court yesterday ordered that the tabby called Holly and Rah-Rah the hamster were placed in the protection of the RSPCA, which is now seeking new homes for them.

Martin Simpson, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said RSPCA officer Carol Neale was tipped off about the animals being abandoned and visited the flat.

The girl, who lived alone, was not in but the officer looked through the letter-box and saw the cat, which looked in an agitated condition.

She placed a tape across the door and intended to return the next day to see if anyone had returned to the house. She also left a note for the owner to contact her. He said: "She went back the next day and nobody had been to the flat. She visited for the next five or six days and still nobody had been back.

"She later gained entry and saw the tabby and the hamster. There was no water for either animal and just a few dried scraps of food for the cat."

The animals were taken away and fed and watered at the RSPCA centre in Mount Street, Bradford.

The court heard the girl had been living on her own for about eight months and she was immature for her age.

"On this occasion she arranged to stay with a friend and made arrangements with another friend to look after the pets, but that friend let her down.

"She called twice at the house but had problems getting in and thought the friend had been," her solicitor said.

After the hearing, Carol Neale said: "I was shocked by the state of the house - the conditions were disgusting.

"The animals were in reasonable condition, but the hamster was so thirsty that it drank for five solid minutes when we got it back to the centre."

She said it was a potentially disastrous situation because the animals could have starved to death.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.