A GREAT grandmother was tagged and given a night time curfew by Trafford magistrates after pleading guilty to selling a goldfish to a minor, and another charge of animal cruelty relating to a cockatiel.

Pensioner Joan Higgins, 66, who runs Major’s Pet Foods on Ashfield Road in Sale, and her son, Mark Higgins, 44, pleaded guilty to both charges.

Animal welfare officers from Trafford’s Enviromental Health team arranged for a test purchase by a 14 year-old boy after learning a gerbil had been sold to an underage girl with special needs, the animal subsequently dying after being kept in a lidded disposable coffee cup. The pet shop, however, deny this, claiming their ledger shows they weren’t even stocking gerbils at the time.

On Monday Mrs Higgins, the licence holder of the shop, was given a two month curfew by magistrates banning her from leaving her home between 7pm and 6am, while Mr Higgins was given 120 hours community service. The pair were also ordered to pay £1,750 in costs.

Mrs Higgins other son, Darren, who also works at the shop, told SAM: “They’re both just devastated by it. The tag is the worst thing for mum.”

On the ‘test purchase’, he added. “They both came in together, she stood by the door and the lad came and bought the goldfish. We thought they were together, and he looked old enough anyway - he was taller than me.

“They changed the law to make it 16 to buy animals if they’re not accompanied, and that’s right, but we thought they were together,” he added.

The court also heard a cockatiel in the shop at the time had a broken leg and an eye infection, and had to be put down, although Darren said the bird was not for sale and was being nursed back to health by the family who’d rescued it from a batch load of parrots.

“We were trying to do the right thing by it,” he said. “The other birds had been attacking it and so we’d separated it fro the others. Other people would have rung it’s neck.

“Mum was wrong to have kep it in the shop as it wasn’t for sale though.”

But a council spokesman told Messenger the pet shop would have been given a slap on the wrist for failing the test purchase had it not been for the state of the cockatiel.

Head of public protection at Trafford Council, Iain Veitch, commented: "Let this conviction send out a message that we will not tolerate those who cause unnecessary suffering to animals.

“The council will always try to support pet and business owners so that they are able to care for their animals properly, but where they continually ignore the advice they are given, we will not hesitate to use our statutory powers."