Couple both disqualified from keeping animals

A man and a woman have been disqualified from keeping animals for 15 years after an RSPCA investigation into the conditions they kept four dogs and four puppies.

Leo Chandler and Chloe Dyke, both of St Thomas Road in Erdington, appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 17 July.
 
The couple was sentenced after admitting three Animal Welfare Act offences*. Sentencing the pair, magistrates said the case was ‘shocking’ and that the animals had been in ‘appalling’ conditions.

Chandler was disqualified from keeping all animals for 15 years and was given a 12-month community order including 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 200 hours of unpaid work.

Dyke was disqualified from keeping all animals for 15 years and was given a 12-month community order including 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and a £100 fine. They were also ordered to pay £350 in costs and a £114 victim surcharge each.

The RSPCA launched an investigation after a collie called Jasper was taken to vets with serious injuries on 7 January having been attacked by another dog. Vets raised concerns with the RSPCA due to Jasper’s condition, matted fur and large flea burden, and he was seized and placed into RSPCA care.

RSPCA Animal Rescue Officers (ARO) Tracy Myles and Sarah Guest went to Jasper’s owners’ home and took three adult dogs and four 10-week-old puppies into their care due to concerns about the environment they were living in as well as the dogs’ weight, untreated flea and skin conditions.

Cane Corso cross Berserker was ‘kept in the kitchen with the door tied shut with a lead that was then tied around a radiator’, ARO Guest said. He was underweight, filthy and suffering some fur-loss. ARO Myles described that the floor was ‘covered with faeces and urine’.

Bullbreed Missy - mum to the four puppies - also presented as underweight and with fur-loss, while a one-year-old bullbreed dog, Willow, was found locked in the bathroom.

ARO Guest said: “The room had a lot of clutter covering the floor as well as piles of faeces. There was no food or water present in the room but there were multiple empty dog food cans scattered around."

She said two of the puppies ‘drank frantically until the bowl was empty’ when officers gave them water.

In mitigation, the court heard Dyke suffered with her mental health and magistrates were told that both were sorry for what had happened, agreeing that the conditions were unacceptable.

RSPCA Inspector Ben Jones, who investigated the case, said, after sentencing: “The conditions of these dogs and their living environment were wholly unacceptable whilst Jasper's injuries were particularly distressing.

"I hope this case and the disqualification order imposed upon the defendants reminds owners of their legal responsibility to meet the needs of their animals”

The dogs were all signed over into the RSPCA’s care and sent to rehoming centres where they could recover and be prepared for new homes.