Police are looking for a woman who faces animal-cruelty charges after she allegedly abandoned two chinchillas and a cat in her apartment for 17 days.

The animals were found without food or water in the woman's Victoria apartment a few weeks after she moved out on July 31. Unaware the woman had kept pets, the landlord

didn't check the apartment until Aug. 17, when he found the emaciated animals, along with some of the woman's possessions.

The landlord called Victoria's animal-control services, which seized the animals and handed them to the B.C. SPCA. One of the chinchillas died only hours later.

Lynsay Bailey, a special provincial constable who investigates animal-cruelty cases for the B.C. SPCA, said the chinchillas were found inside their cage without food or water.

"There wasn't as much feces as there should have been, indicating they were eating the feces," Bailey said. "It also appears one chinchilla was eating the fur off the other one."

A bag of chinchilla food sat about a metre and a half from the cage, underscoring the senselessness of the act, Bailey said.

"All the owner had to do was make a phone call to let someone know there were pets inside her apartment or have a friend make that call for her," Bailey said.

The adolescent cat had apparently broken into the chinchilla food, and appears to have been drinking water out of the toilet.

The Crown approved charges yesterday. Charges were only being filed this month as the SPCA worked through a backlog of investigations.

Robyn Louise MacMillan is charged under the Criminal Code and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Her whereabouts are not known and police have issued a warrant for her arrest.

Princess and Lilo, the cat and surviving chinchilla, have been adopted. The chinchilla is in a home that already has another chinchilla. Princess was adopted last weekend.

jhatherly@tc.canwest.com