A woman threw a hamster cage down a flight of stairs in a row with her half-sister.

The pet called Jeff died after Tracey McGregor picked up his cage and threw it about 20ft down a set of stairs.

McGregor, 28, was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal on Monday.

Perth Sheriff Court heard that the animal appeared to have died after his cage smashed open at the foot of the stairs in the home of McGregor's half-sister Leanne Anderson, 17.

Miss Anderson said: "I asked her to leave when the argument started. She just got angry. I had to phone my dad. She just shouted down the phone at him. She threw the phone against the wall. I just kept asking her to leave.

"She was saying hurtful things about my mum. She went into my room and threw some things about the room. That's when she picked up the hamster's cage. It was obvious she was heading to the stairs."

Miss Anderson’s told the trial her boyfriend tried to stop McGregor throwing the cage. She added: "He couldn't get the cage from her. I went through to check on my younger sister and heard the other two cages getting knocked from the chest of drawers.

"I went back out to see what had happened. She had thrown it down the stairs. It was at the bottom. I saw her at the top of the stairs. I heard him getting thrown down the stairs. I was standing at the bedroom door. I came out to see what the noise was. The hamster had been thrown down the stairs."

McGregor, of Eriskay Place, Perth, admitted she had picked up a hamster's cage and had hurled it down the stairs, but claimed the hamster was not inside it at the time.

She said: "I was being reckless and stupid. I threw the cage downstairs." She added that she did not like hamsters and said: "I am terrified of them."

After a trial that started in May last year, Sheriff Robert McCreadie found McGregor guilty of causing cruelty to a protected animal by throwing the hamster in a cage down the stairs at Cairns Crescent, Perth, on October 24, 2010.

He said: "I have no doubt she is guilty of the charge, in that she threw a hamster in a cage downstairs. Clearly something had happened to at least one of the hamsters."

Sentence on McGregor was deferred until March for reports.