A FARMHAND has been found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to more than 100 dogs.

Marc Ian Young, of Hawthorn Terrace, Bishop Middleham, County Durham, had denied 11 animal welfare charges.

During his trial at Teesside Magistrates’ Court, he said he was overwhelmed with the workload after 144 flea-ridden dogs were found to be living amid their own faeces in unsuitable pens, cages, barns, vans and trucks at Bog Hall Farm, Mordon, near Sedgefield, County Durham.

Giving evidence, the 29-year-old admitted he realised the dogs were living in filthy conditions, but maintained he was following the orders of his boss, Paul Nigel Brown, who was the farm’s tenant at the time.

Finding Young guilty on all charges, Judge Simon Hickey said: “Mr Young admitted he knew it was wrong to throw food on the filthy floor of the pens. He knew he was failing to provide adequate care for the animals. He was embarrassed by the finding of excrement and smell of urine.

He has accepted that he had failed to give the dogs a clean living environment.”

Brown, 56, of Lawton Road, Redcar, east Cleveland, admitted charges relating to causing unnecessary suffering to 144 dogs at a previous hearing.

The case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports, and the pair will appear in court on December 15 to be sentenced.

Speaking after the verdict RSPCA inspector Lucy Hoehne said: “We are over the moon with the guilty verdict on all 11 counts, and I think that justice has been served for the dogs.

“It has been a long time coming and we are pleased that the case is over. The investigation was very traumatic for all the people involved.”

The investigation and care of the dogs has cost the RSPCA more than £100,000.

Vet Jacqui Paterson, who treated the dogs after they had been rescued, said: “The dogs really were in a terrible condition and it took months to nurse them back to health and rehabilitate them.”

Not all of the animals survived, but more than 100 have been successfully rehomed.