Wife Stabs Estranged Husband After Hearing He'd Euthanized Their Rescue Dogs: 'You Killed My Dogs!' By KC Baker

A woman in England who stabbed her estranged husband when he told her he had euthanized their pet dogs has been found not guilty of attempted murder but convicted of the lesser crime of wounding with intent.

Claire Bridger, 64, of Taverham, Norwich, knew something was wrong when she pulled into the driveway of her estranged husband’s home on July 17, 2025, and realized she didn’t hear their dogs barking.

When the mother of two asked Keith Bridger, her husband of nearly 40 years, where the dogs were, he told her he had them put down, the Eastern Daily Press reports.

She said she flew into a rage, blacked out and then stabbed him in the chest and abdomen with a knife she had in the car, The Telegraph reports.

During part of the 999 call jurors heard, Bridger could be heard yelling, “You killed my dogs!” according to The Telegraph.

Bridger, a nurse, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and wounding with intent, Discover.SWNS.com reports.

On Jan. 13, a jury found her not guilty of attempted murder, but convicted her of wounding with intent, the Eastern Daily Press reports.

During the trial, jurors heard the details of what led Bridger to stab Keith Bridger.

The couple had separated in April 2025 and were going to mediation sessions when the incident took place, according to The Telegraph.

Bridger initially cared for the two rescue dogs the couple and their two daughters had adopted, but left them with Keith when she went to visit her sister and niece in London for a week, she said in court, The Telegraph reports.

Bridger said she left the couple’s two rescue dogs with Keith when she went to visit family in London and ended up staying for several weeks while dealing with the breakup. During that time, he and their daughters cared for dogs, which were described in court as having behavioral issues, The Telegraph reports.

At one point, one of her daughters told her to come home and get the dogs because they were having trouble caring for them and were going to put them down, the court heard, the Eastern Daily Press reports.

Bridger didn’t believe them, she told the jury. “I thought it was nonsense,” she said, adding that she thought her daughters just wanted her to come home. “I thought that they would never put the dogs down, no matter what.” 

When she returned to Norwich, she drove over to Keith’s house to drop off some of their daughters’ belongings.

Before she drove over, she said she drank a double gin and tonic, the Eastern Daily Press reports.

Keith was in the driveway when she pulled in and they spoke briefly, she testified. She was getting ready to leave when she realized she didn’t hear the dogs barking, which she thought was odd.

“I shouted out ‘Where are the dogs?’” she told jurors. “He didn’t answer me. I beeped my horn and shouted it again.”

When she yelled a third time, she said, “He turned round facing me in the car and he said ‘You know where the dogs are. The vets wrote to you.’ I said I had a text from the vets and he said, ‘You know what happened to the dogs. The dogs are dead. I had them put down.’”

The moment she heard that he’d euthanized the dogs, she said, “It was like an explosion in my head. I could see my feet getting out of the car and that was it.”

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She said she blacked out and “saw red,” grabbing a bent knife from a trash bag in her car and stabbing Keith, jurors heard, according to the Eastern Daily Press.

When Bridger’s defense attorney asked her if she was responsible for assaulting her husband with a knife and “intended to do him really serious harm,” she said “yes,” the Eastern Daily Press reports.

The defense attorney told jurors a medical expert who performed a psychiatric assessment on Bridger found that “a combination of alcohol and extreme emotional arousal” during the incident could have caused amnesia.

She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 20.