A woman who sent an e-mail to several friends blaming a vet for her dog’s death was to day fined €250 for defamation.

Bernice Ebejer sent a document to her friends entitled ‘Justice in memory of our beloved dog Muffin’.

In it she attacked vet Charmaine Xuereb for the way she had conducted a hysterectomy operation on her bitch in January 2010. Back at home, the bitch started bleeding. A man with nursing experience made another suture on the dog, but it was then taken to another vet. 

He examined the bitch and replaced the sutures both inside and outside the body and the bleeding stopped. 

The dog stopped bleeding and was taken back home It died shortly after.

Ms Ebejer sent an e-mail to several friends blaming Dr Xuereb for the death.

Dr Xuereb noted in her testimony that an autopsy later established that the dog died because of a swollen pancreas which meant that the dog was too weak for the second operation.

In finding the accused €250 the court noted that the letter had been restricted to a number of people and not a wide audience.

The court said it was not true that six sutures were missing, as the e-mail had claimed. Ms Ebejer had also not mentioned that a friend of Ms Ebejer had himself made another suture before the dog was taken to the second vet.