A DOG owner jailed after her two Staffordshire bull terriers killed a Yorkshire terrier was released from prison after winning her appeal.

Sally Ann Rudge, from Newport, was given an 18-week custodial sentence last month after her pets fatally attacked the other dog in the Bettws area of the city.

Newport magistrates had also ordered that the Staffordshire bull terriers, Ruby and Kia, be destroyed and disqualified her from owning a dog for five years.

The defendant had pleaded guilty to two charges under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in that the animals were dangerously out of control.

Appearing via video link from Eastwood Park Prison, Rudge, 42, of Lambourne Way, appealed against her sentence at Cardiff Crown Court.

Prosecutor Leah Pollard said that the defendant had previously been subject to a community protection notice after dogs in her care had killed a number of cats.

She said that when her Staffordshire bull terriers killed Yorkshire terrier Titch while she was walking them on Lambourne Way on May 10, they were on leads but not muzzled – as they were supposed to be.

The court also heard that Rudge had a previous conviction under the Dangerous Dogs Act from 2012.

Eugene Egan, representing the defendant, said that his client had given Titch’s owner a “verbal warning” and asked him to pick up his dog.

The judge, Recorder Simon Foster, sitting with magistrates Christopher Dale and Stephen Withers, quashed the original sentence from last month.

They jailed Rudge for 12 weeks, suspended for one year, ordered that Ruby and Kia, currently under the care of her ex-partner pending the appeal, not be destroyed on condition that they be muzzled and on a lead at all times.

But they increased the length of time that Rudge is banned from keeping dogs from five years to 10.

The defendant was also made the subject of a 12-month community order and she must carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation and activity requirement.