A NINE-YEAR-OLD with a passion for his menagerie of pets is celebrating after winning The Northern Echo's Pet Idol 2005 competition.

Jamie Yorke's two-year-old lurcher, Jay, was voted the winner out of more than 250 pictures of the finest pets in the region, scooping £500 worth of prizes. Readers cast 4,194 votes during the contest.

Jamie, of Dunelm Road, Moorside, near Consett, County Durham, said: "I am delighted. Jay can run fast, he jumps big fences and he goes out walking with me.

"He is really friendly and I am fond of him. I am now looking forward to taking him for a groom."

Jamie, who attends Grove Primary School, in Consett, also has a dog called Jack, two goldfish, budgerigars and a cockateel.

His mother, Jeanette, said: "After entering the competition, he kept coming and asking me if he had won.

"When he heard the news, he was over the moon. He loves animals and always has. The house is already like a petshop.

"He has an aviary, two dogs and a fishtank. Now he is getting another fishtank as part of his prize - but that will have to go in his bedroom."

Jamie has won a starter aquarium kit worth £100 from Fintasia Aquatics, a £100 gift voucher from Cockerton pet shop, a £100 voucher from Grange Veterinary Hospital, a pet grooming session from Scruffy Pups and inoculations for the life of his pets from Vets for Pets.