A court in New Zealand has sentenced a woman to two months’ jail for overfeeding her pet dog to death.

The dog, named Nuggi, weighed 53.7kg when he was rescued in October 2021 – having been fed by his former owner eight to 10 pieces of chicken a day, on top of his dog biscuits.

He was so obese it was not possible to hear his heartbeat with a stethoscope because of all the fat.

“Nuggi was being drastically overfed and, instead of seeking help or amending the behaviour, his owner continued to overfeed him until he could barely walk. This is unacceptable,” said Mr Todd Westwood, chief executive of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

When he was taken by SPCA officers, Nuggi had to pause three times to catch his breath across the 10m he had to walk from where he was being kept to the rescue car.

His legs appeared to be collapsing under the weight of his enormous body, the rescuers said.

His nails were overgrown. He had wounds on his belly and elbows, and he had conjunctivitis.

The SPCA said in a statement it released on its website on July 24 that the Manukau district court in South Auckland had sentenced Nuggi’s owner to two months in jail and ordered her to pay a fine of NZ$1,222.15 (S$975).

She was also barred from owning dogs for a year.

Nuggie spent around two months at an SPCA-run animal shelter, where he lost 8.9kg.

But he died suddenly despite losing this much weight due to an acute haemorrhage from a ruptured mass on his liver.

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